Insider: 10 thoughts on the Colts' last-minute loss to Commanders
INDIANAPOLIS -- Ten thoughts on the Colts' 17-16 loss to the Commanders at Lucas Oil Stadium:
Live blog:LIVE: Commanders beat Colts, Sam Ehlinger with last-minute touchdown
Insider: Late Washington drive, critical turnovers doom Colts in Sam Ehlinger debut
It's been a weird week at the Colts facility. Perhaps the strangest I have covered from either the Bears, Lions or Colts. The locker room was shell-shocked by the decision to bench Matt Ryan for Sam Ehlinger and the idea that it wasn't temporary but permanent. Owner Jim Irsay added something to the tension Sunday morning, when he told ESPN's Chris Mortensen that the offensive line let Ryan down and that he wanted to make the move earlier this season but couldn't bench the quarterback after a win. It would have been uplifting to end this kind of a week with a win, but this truly is a league of inches. The Colts came up an inch short of a touchdown from Michael Pittman Jr. They were an inch short of a first down with Sam Ehlinger, which gave the ball back to the Commanders. And they were an inch short of a game-sealing interception from Stephon Gilmore, which Terry McLaurin ripped out of his arms to set up a Taylor Heinicke last-minute touchdown sneak. A win would have had this team breathing a moment of relief, but now they're 3-4-1, with one of the more winnable games on the schedule becoming a missed opportunity.
Sam Ehlinger's first start went about as I expected for a sixth-round pick on three days of practice before his first-ever NFL pass. The Colts used a conservative game plan that was about getting him on the move and away from the pressure they've learned to live with due to leaky pass protection. They pushed him to throw it up to Michael Pittman Jr. and Alec Pierce, which worked for one explosive gain but didn't show a ton of chemistry in the end. He played a fairly safe game but did fumble and nearly threw an interception across the middle. He also had a couple nice throws on the move, the kind Ryan isn't physically able to make. Ehlinger hung in there and gave them a chance, but it's still a mostly broken offense, and he's going to be limited while his arm is developing and he's still learning the game. He did earn himself a future in this league, though, as he didn't look overwhelmed by the moment and showed a pretty clean mastery of a playbook.
I think this quarterback situation is worth monitoring each week. Ehlinger gives the Colts something different, but it's still hard to envision a path to contention. The Colts have nine games to go, and they've gotten quite a few players hurt in their backfield already. Ryan isn't healthy as it is, but Nick Foles is, and we know what he has been able to step in and do in this league. It's Ehlinger's team for now. But if this season has taught us anything, it's that there are no guarantees with the Colts offense. Anything can change or break at any moment. That said, Ehlinger had to have gained some confidence getting this first start under his belt, and that's always important.
Grover Stewart is on a new level right now. One week after he racked up 12 tackles as a nose tackle, Stewart was blowing up screens, batting down passes, eating guards and chasing down quarterbacks. The Commanders were foolish enough to run a fourth-down play into the belly of the beast, and it ended predictably with a stop. Stewart is a monster living his best life in the trenches this year, and it'll get lost in the mess that is the Colts offense, but he deserves his first Pro Bowl nod.
This was the Parris Campbell game. He had a 28-yard run around the edge, a 38-yard reception on a screen pass and a pass interference he forced on a fade route that otherwise would have been a walk-in touchdown. That PI set up Nyheim Hines' touchdown run. It all comes after he caught 17 total passes with two touchdowns the previous two weeks. He looks every bit of the 4.3-second 40-yard dash player he was coming out of Ohio State in 2018. It's been such a long road to get back to that level, physically and mentally, but you won't find a player on the Colts who puts more time and focus into doing that, from the playbook to the weight room to the practice field. Here's hoping he can have that healthy season he's been gunning for. It's coming at an absolutely perfect time, given the mayhem at quarterback.
This was Frank Reich and Marcus Brady's most creative game plan of the season, perhaps only behind the hurry-up passing that beat the Jaguars two weeks ago. With just three practices to prepare Ehlinger, the Colts employed a diverse run game that got two of their fastest players, Campbell and Nyheim Hines, running to the wide side of the field. That east-west action helped widen the ends to create more natural holes for Jonathan Taylor on inside zone plays, and he looked his best this season as a runner, gaining 76 yards on 16 carries. They used Taylor and Hines on the field together quite a bit, with constant motion. They just kept the Commanders off-balance. Teams will adjust to this the more they put it on tape, but the Colts will have a chance to tinker with the formations as they go along, too.
That's not to say Reich was perfect as a play-caller. I did not like the third-and-goal call to run Taylor up the middle out of the shotgun, leaving way too much space for Washington's stout defensive line to swallow an obvious design. The Colts could have used a quarterback sneak package like they did with Jacoby Brissett. But overall, the play calls that fans likely hated were mostly about having a sixth-round pick with a developing arm making his first career start. Reich decided to bank on his defense and kicker, and it created the best path of winning.
The conservative game plan could not eliminate the turnovers, though. Ehlinger fumbled as he was hit in a collapsing pocket and was too loose with the ball. Taylor fumbled on a first-down run, too, and it's surprising to write that that's already his second on the season. This is who the Colts are right now, working too hard on offense to launch long drives that too often seem destined to end in a turnover.
Crossing routes really hurt the Colts, to running backs and wide receivers. The inability to cover backs has been a consistent problem, but now opponents are picking a little more on Kenny Moore II on slow-developing routes. He's still a force when he can make plays on screen passes or come up and tackle in the run game, but he's still looking for his footing in defensive coordinator Gus Bradley's scheme, which uses the nickel more as a No. 3 cornerback than the roving, hybrid safety type he was as a Pro Bowler under Matt Eberflus. They need to get him back in downhill situations with his eyes on the quarterback, because the man coverage while dragging across the field is not his strong suit.
What a fantastic bounce-back game from Matt Haack after a performance in Tennessee that was so disastrous that the Colts signed a practice-squad punter in case they needed to make the switch. Haack averaged a ridiculous 56.8 yards on his four boots and downed three inside the 20. Give Haack credit for making the adjustments this week and for maintaining his confidence. He looked stunned last week in the locker room, but I appreciate players who own it, and he did -- with his words and with his adjustments. It was enormous in a low-scoring game with limitations at quarterback.
Contact Colts insider Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts vs. Commanders: Sam Ehlinger performs in last-minute loss
