Shane Steichen, over his three years as the Colts’ head coach and playcaller, has largely trended toward being an aggressive decision-maker. But aggressiveness was not what the Colts needed against the Seahawks – the plan was to control the clock, run the ball and grind out a low-scoring win.
It nearly worked.
Every head coach’s decision-making comes under scrutiny in a loss, and Steichen on Sunday was asked to explain a few things about the final minute of game play.
On a third-and-seven at the Seahawks’ 46-yard line, Rivers handed off to Taylor for a four-yard gain. Seattle used its last timeout, and Grupe connected from 60 yards.
“Soft zone, got it closer to field goal range,” Steichen said. “Instead of throwing incomplete, now you’re probably in no-man’s land, probably going to go for it there. So got it into field goal range.”
[…]
The larger point here is Steichen adapted to what the Colts needed on Sunday. It didn’t work, no matter how close “almost” was here. But Steichen showed he can shift his team’s mentality given the circumstances, and that’s an important thing to note as the Colts look to scrap together some wins to close out the 2025 season.