INDIANAPOLIS — Colts head coach Shane Steichen admitted he made a critical mistake by getting too conservative at the end of Sunday’s 29-28 win over the Broncos.
Steichen called three straight runs after Indianapolis picked up a first down at the Denver 43-yard line, picking up a total of one yard and leaving young kicker Spencer Shrader with a 60-yard field goal attempt to win the game.
Shrader pushed the 60-yarder to the right and hit it short, a miss that would have left the Colts with a loss if Denver linebacker Dondrea Tillman hadn’t been flagged for using leverage to try to block the kick, a reprieve that allowed Shrader to make the game-winner from 45 yards.
“Probably should have been more aggressive there,” Steichen said on Monday. “I’ve got a lot of faith in Spence to make a kick, but don’t want to put him in those situations from that deep.”
Steichen initially said after the game that he wanted to leave no time on the clock, avoiding a potential kickoff return under the NFL’s new rules.
After thinking the situation through again on Sunday night and Monday morning, Steichen realizes he could have avoided kicking off to the Broncos anyway.
“Well, I think we still could have been aggressive without them getting the return,” Steichen said. “They had no timeouts. I could have been aggressive, stay inbounds with the throw, whatever it may have been, stay inbounds and bleed the clock down in that situation.”
A pass would have carried some risk.
A sack could knock Indianapolis out of field-goal range. An interception would have ended the game.
But Colts quarterback Daniel Jones has been an excellent decision-maker through the first two weeks of the season, and he was dealing against Denver. Jones completed 23 of 34 throws for 316 yards and a touchdown, and he hasn’t turned the ball over through the first two weeks of the season.
Facing a third-and-6 just past midfield, Jones had just completed a tough throw to Alec Pierce for seven yards to pick up a first down and force the Broncos to call their last timeout, placing control of the game firmly in Steichen’s hands.
The Colts coach wishes he’d handled that responsibility better.
“We had three timeouts,” Steichen said. “I probably could have thrown the ball on second or third down there, in that situation, to get closer to a field goal. (I will) learn from that. Obviously don’t want to do that to our guys again, but obviously, we found a way to win there, thankfully.”
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.