The Indianapolis Colts appear to be allergic to creating the playoffs.
With their 45-33 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, they had been formally eradicated from playoff competition for the fourth season in a row. In three of these seasons the Colts have suffered devastating, embarrassing losses in must-win video games.
It has been such a nasty run that Sunday’s loss to a beforehand 2-13 Giants crew may not even be the worst of all of them.
A fast rundown of the latest historical past for the Colts in these must-win video games:
— In 2021 they entered Week 18 of the season merely needing to beat the 2-14 Jacksonville Jaguars to clinch a playoff berth. They ended up dropping 26-11 (after falling behind 26-3) and missed the playoffs.
— In 2023 they entered Week 18 needing a win over the Houston Texans to make the playoffs and win the AFC South. They misplaced when operating again Tyler Goodson dropped a large open cross on a fourth-and-one that would have saved a possible game-winning drive going.
Then there was Sunday in opposition to the Giants.
The Colts nonetheless wanted some assist to get within the playoffs even with a win this time round, however a win was an absolute should to maintain their probabilities alive. They not solely did not get it, they had been humiliated.
The two-13 Giants entered the sport with out having received a single sport at house all season. That they had misplaced 10 video games in a row. That they had not scored greater than 22 factors in any of these video games, and solely as soon as scored greater than 20 factors. They had been beginning Drew Lock after he entered the season as their third-string quarterback.
You hate to say that any sport within the NFL needs to be an assumed win, however this could have been as shut to 1 as you could possibly get for the Colts.
Sure, the Colts had been additionally taking part in with a backup quarterback, as Joe Flacco began instead of the injured Anthony Richardson, however there’s most likely an argument to be made that Flacco is a greater quarterback at this stage of each participant’s careers. The Colts additionally scored 33 factors.
Sadly for them, they allowed 45 factors with Lock accounting for 5 touchdowns (4 passing and one speeding) and posting a 155.3 passer ranking in what might need been the most effective sport of his profession.
When it comes to worst losses, the 2021 sport in Jacksonville continues to be probably the most humiliating as a result of that was a win-and-in sport. The 2023 sport in Houston was in opposition to a very good crew that was most likely a coin-flip getting into. The loss damage, particularly with the essential drop, however there was no disgrace within the defeat. The latest letdown most likely sandwiches in the course of the three.
Mixed with the sport in Denver two weeks in the past that swung when operating again Jonathan Taylor prematurely dropped the ball on the objective line celebrating a certain landing, the Colts are going to have an extended offseason of “what ifs” forward of them.
