KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Forget about defensive end Laiatu Latu’s interception of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ first pass of the game. Forget about tight end Drew Ogletree’s 4-yard, toe-tapping touchdown grab in the second quarter. Forget about Mahomes being sacked on back-to-back plays with just a few minutes to go before the intermission.
Those were good plays made by a good Indianapolis Colts team, no doubt. But to get to the next level, the one where champions such as the Chiefs reside, the Colts needed to run through the tape Sunday. Instead, they ran out of gas in a 23-20 overtime loss against a franchise whose standard is Super Bowls.
Kansas City, the three-time reigning AFC champion, flexed its mettle to climb back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit, force overtime and ultimately avoid the first regular-season three-game losing streak of the Mahomes era. Indianapolis had Kansas City on the ropes, but with the game on the line, it was the Colts who wound up on the wrong end of the knock-out punch.
“We probably gotta kind of finish a little better,” cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. said.
He would know.
Ward, who returned from a concussion and played in his first game since Week 5, spent four years with the Chiefs from 2018 to 2021. He started in back-to-back Super Bowls during that span, winning it all during the 2019 season. The ability to close, as Ward explained, is what separates the doers and the dreamers. The Chiefs have proved to be the former, whereas the Colts, amid a four-year playoff drought, looked like the latter on Sunday.
“They got Hall of Famers almost at every level. Even the coach is a Hall of Famer,” Ward said. “So, it just shows us we’re in the fight. We’re right there. But we gotta get a little bit better.”
The improvement must start at the top, with Colts coach and play caller Shane Steichen. To be fair, Steichen has mostly been brilliant for Indianapolis this season, evidenced by the Colts’ league-high 31.2 points per game entering Week 12. But after building a 14-9 halftime lead, Indianapolis managed just 6 points in the second half and overtime. The most frustrating part, perhaps, is that in what has become a bit of a theme since Steichen took over in 2023, when his team got into trouble, he once again neglected the run for the pass.
He once again forgot about his best player: Jonathan Taylor.
#Colts Week 12 recap! pic.twitter.com/H981l8a7dt
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The Colts had three possessions in the fourth quarter, all with a lead. They ran it just once. Taylor was tackled for a 2-yard loss on first-and-10 from Indianapolis’ 6-yard line less than a minute in, and Steichen responded by calling eight consecutive pass plays the rest of the frame. Colts quarterback Daniel Jones completed just two of those passes for 13 yards, as the Colts went three-and-out three times in a row in the fourth quarter and again in overtime.
The Colts ran just 12 offensive plays in the fourth quarter and overtime, and they managed just 18 total yards, 0 points and four punts. Meanwhile, the Chiefs ran 41 plays for 236 total yards and 14 points, with just one punt (and one fumble) in the last two periods.
“I don’t know,” Steichen said, when asked if the offense became too imbalanced. “I felt there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the pass game, and we just weren’t efficient doing it, and it starts with me.”
To be fair, Taylor didn’t look like an MVP candidate Sunday. The Chiefs made sure of it by stacking the box, containing the edge and rallying to the ball whenever he had it. Taylor entered the fourth quarter with just 57 yards on 13 carries, with 27 of those yards coming on a rare breakout run in the third quarter. But that’s the thing about Taylor: He’s always one play away from a game-changing home run, evidenced by his three carries this season of at least 65 yards.
Asked whether he has spoken to Steichen about needing more carries at the end of the game, Taylor wouldn’t go there.
“I have confidence, and at the end of the day, (the players) have to make the plays go,” Taylor said. “Receivers have to be in their right spots. O-line, running backs, we have to give Daniel time. Daniel has to deliver the ball. It’s a culmination of everything that goes into each play, and we trust Shane, so we have to make these plays happen.”
Taylor has every right to take that stance because, to this point, Steichen’s play calling has put him on pace for one of the most prolific rushing seasons in Colts history. But the other factor to consider in Steichen’s abandonment of the run Sunday is time. Even if Taylor got stuffed and never found daylight, a few more carries would’ve kept the clock rolling. Indianapolis’ six incompletions over its last three drives of regulation essentially served as extra timeouts for a Chiefs team that needed every second to force overtime, with kicker Harrison Butker drilling a tying 25-yard field goal as time expired.
The final tally on fourth-quarter time of possession? Chiefs, 11:46; Colts 3:14.
“I have to be better,” Steichen said.
He uttered that phrase, or some variation of it, several times in his postgame news conference.
After Steichen was done airing his frustrations, it was Jones’ turn to take the podium and point the finger at himself. The quarterback finished 19-of-31 passing for 181 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t commit a turnover or get sacked, a noticeable shift from the 12 sacks he took and seven turnovers he tallied in the previous two games, and held a passer rating of 99.0. But anyone who watched Sunday knows he wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be when the game required it. Jones completed 14 of his first 16 passes and went 5-of-15 passing the rest of the way.
“I think you have to be on it, and personally, I think you have to be accurate,” Jones said. “Like we talked about, they’re bringing pressure and trying to heat you up. Sometimes that happens a bit quicker than you’d expect. You still have to be accurate and find a way to make the play work. I have to do a better job of that.”
Jones’ gait was a bit off because of a fibula injury that landed him on the injury report last week for the first time this season. The quarterback refused to use that as an excuse, saying he was “good enough to play” and therefore play well. But perhaps that was yet another factor for Steichen to consider when the offense started to spiral and his QB no longer had control of the wheel.
Indianapolis’ defense played 91 snaps as a result of the offense’s struggles, which is another way of saying the Colts gave way too many chances to Mahomes. The Colts eventually wilted under the weight of their inefficiency, and now the pressure is only going to intensify. The AFC South title is no longer a given, as Indy has some crucial games coming up. The 6-5 Houston Texans and their No. 1-ranked scoring defense await next week, with the 7-4 Jacksonville Jaguars looming in Week 14.
“Anytime you got an opportunity to play against a great quarterback, a great coach, in those types of environments, obviously, you want to win,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said, still steaming over the Chiefs’ tying and game-winning drives. “… But being in it together, it’s a growth experience. We’re gonna be in a situation like this again, and it might be against them again. The next time we’re gonna come out with a better result.”