I’ve taken a few days to gather my thoughts on what occurred to the Colts to end the season. They went into the final game of the season only needing to beat the worst team in the league, the Jacksonville Jaguars. They went into this game as 14-point favorites and most people including myself had them penciled in for a playoff spot.
The Colts then decided to play the worst and most embarrassing football I have seen. They couldn’t block, they couldn’t rush the passer and they decided to give up on the run game early in the third quarter. Most of all, they didn’t have any passing game and they didn’t have one all season.
This loss gets put on the shoulders of three individuals. Carson Wentz, Frank Reich and Chris Ballard are all to blame for this game and for this season.
To start, Carson Wentz. I will admit I was on board with trading for Wentz in the offseason. Although, I said at the time that a first-round pick was way too much. I thought Wentz was going to be able to get some of that magic back that he had before his injury in 2017. I thought that Frank Reich was going to bring out the best in him. Boy was I wrong. I was so dead wrong. Carson Wentz was consistently terrible this year. The Colts never had any threat of a passing game this season. Every game Wentz made a play that would make Colts fans scream at their TV. In Jacksonville on Sunday it was the fumble where Wentz looked like he was trying to flip the ball out as he was taking a sack. Instead of just holding the ball and taking a sack on first down, and living for second down, he turns the ball over in his own territory. A few series later once the Colts defense made a few stops, Wentz got the ball back. This time he pumps a few times and throws a terrible interception in the Colts territory, basically ending the game and solidifying the Colts fate.
Now fans who don’t actually watch the games will look at Wentz’ stats and think he had a good season. Wentz finished with 3,563 yards, 27 TD’s and 7 interceptions. Now just looking at these stats you wouldn’t think he had that bad of a year. If you actually turned on and watched every snap from every game you would see how many plays and opportunities were left on the field. You would see that even though he had a top three offensive line in football, he would still hold the ball and take terrible sacks, or force a terrible interception, or try to make a crazy play and fumble the ball.
The Colts have some great pieces including the best running back in football in Jonathan Taylor. They have some good pieces on defense and they have a dominant o-line. This team was way too talented to not make the playoffs, but because of the poor play of Wentz, they just missed.
Wentz takes a lot of the blame for this season, but we also have to look at Frank Reich. I might be in the minority here for Colts fans but I believe Reich is very overrated as a head coach. The thing with Reich that drives me crazy is he never commits to running the ball for a full game. He’ll do it for a half and then stop, or he’ll do it sporadically here and there. The Colts whole identity should be running the ball 70% of plays and then work in the play action pass off of the run game. Too many times this season I’d look at the stat sheet and see Taylor have less attempts rushing than Wentz would have passing. I think Reich tried to outsmart his opponents by passing when they would think the colts would run but it ended up backfiring when the person passing the ball was Carson Wentz.
Besides the actual play calling, the last two games of the season were my breaking point with Reich. The Colts just needed to win one of their last two games to make the playoffs. They played the Raiders and Jaguars. These were two teams who had interim coaches and two teams the Colts should of beat. Now the Raiders were decent and had a winning record, but the Jaguars were the worst team in football with a rookie quarterback. Reich couldn’t get his team ready for either team. The Colts came out flat against each team and honestly didn’t look prepared. That is a direct result of the coach not having his team ready to play. I blame Reich as much as I blame Wentz.
The third part of this disaster Colts season is Chris Ballard. Now Ballard failed the Colts before the season even started. He had to make a move for a QB so I don’t completely blame him for the Wentz trade, although I still believe a first round pick was way too much. I blame Ballard more for not doing anything else with the roster. The Colts had so many holes that Ballard didn’t address. He is becoming a GM who is cheap and doesn’t like to spend. He has been amazing in the draft and has knocked it out the park the last few seasons with guys like Nelson, Leonard, Taylor, Pittman and Paye. But with how much he’s done in the draft, he hasn’t done anything in free agency. The Colts had a chance to fill some key holes at positions like wide receiver, cornerback and edge rusher last offseason, and they did nothing. They went into this season with one of the worst receiving cores in the league. Pittman looks like he could be a true number one, but besides him the Colts had a veteran TY Hilton, an injury prone Parris Campbell, and a number three or four receiver in Pascal.
I think this is the last season for Ballard to make a huge difference or I want to see him gone. The Colts need a wide receiver desperately and there are a few good ones in free agency. The Colts need a QB and the best quarterback in football happens to be a free agent. And the bonus part is if you get one, there’s a good chance you get the other. Chris Ballard has a chance to pay up and give Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams blank checks this offseason and pay them whatever they want. I highly doubt he’ll even think about it, because he’s been very cheap in the past but this is the time to spend. You have a lot of players in or getting into their prime on the roster right now. We can’t wait years to get our next QB. We have a chance to win now and what better way to win now then getting the best QB and wide receiver in the league.
I believe this upcoming offseason and next season are the most important in Indianapolis in a while. Can Ballard and Reich actually build a Super Bowl Contender? If they don’t they should be fired and the Colts might look to do another complete rebuild. I know one thing, Jim Irsay wants to win and will do whatever it takes. Hopefully Irsay pressures Ballard into doing something huge this offseason, and the Colts can be back in the Super Bowl conversation.
Cam's Corner 