Colts' Primetime Loss Exposes Offense Amid Quarterback Change

The Indianapolis Colts somehow looked worse amid the move to Joe Flacco in their primetime loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Oct 27, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen reacts on a call as they play against the Houston Texans in the second half at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

The Indianapolis Colts made a massive move at quarterback last week, opting to go with 39-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco over 22-year-old Anthony Richardson. Head coach Shane Steichen said he owed it to the veterans in the locker room to play the best option right now, and that best option was Flacco.

Well, that best option led the Colts to their worst offensive output in the Steichen Era. The offense was simply dreadful in all phases on Sunday night, hitting season lows in points (6), total yards (227), and rushing yards (68) in the embarrassing loss.

This loss, in a lot of ways, exposed the fact that the Colts' offense has been in disarray aside from just the quarterback position this season. Richardson was far from perfect (far from good, even) in his starts this season, but a performance like this on prime-time shows that he wasn't the only issue plaguing this side of the ball. The entire function on offense is in a disgusting place right now, and it starts with the play-caller/head coach.

The Colts produced season lows in offensive points (6), total yards (227), rushing yards (68) and first downs (13) tonight.

But Joe Flacco will remain the starting quarterback, according to coach Shane Steichen.

"Joe was fine," he said. "...It starts with myself."

— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) November 4, 2024

Richardson served as the perfect cover for the Colts' failures on offense, both as a fall guy and someone who elevated the floor of the unit. It's easy to blame the player who is struggling to hit any receiver in stride and on time, but the plays haven't really been there to be made. Richardson's issues were glaring on film, but the play-calling, the play sequencing, and the receivers' struggles to find open space have all been major issues that reared their ugly head on Sunday night.

The fallacy of starting Flacco is the idea that he is only an addition to the offense, not that he was replacing the only aspect of the operation that was actually working. Under Richardson, the Colts had a dominant rushing attack (Jonathan Taylor was averaging 5.2 yards per carry with him at quarterback), strong early-down success (Richardson had a positive EPA on early downs), and one of the more explosive offenses in football.

The inconsistencies were there in a Richardson-led offense, and it was far from a sustainable winning formula, but an offense with him at the helm at least had a stable floor, even with his horrendous accuracy issues and his struggles on third down. Those floor-raising aspects of the offense with Richardson don't just transpose over to Flacco with him as the starter, in fact, they disappear entirely.

By making the move to Flacco as the starter, the Colts didn't add third-down efficiency as the final piece to the offensive puzzle; they sacrificed the floor that Richardson gave them to chase completion percentage and unsustainably high third-down play from Flacco. Once Flacco's third-down success inevitably regressed against an outstanding Vikings defense, the Colts' offense lost any semblance of identity and rhythm and looked totally inept.

Wrote about Anthony Richardson's benching and why the notion that Joe Flacco completing more passes will fix the offense is questionable. https://t.co/2IpnJ67uYq

— Steven Ruiz (@theStevenRuiz) October 30, 2024

The offense was far from where you want it to be under Richardson this season, but it at least had some things going for it. Under Flacco, without the unsustainably high third-down conversion rate, the offense simply had nothing. Taylor averages nearly 2.0 yards fewer per carry with Flacco under center this season. The pressure-to-sack rate climbs from 16% to 22% with Flacco in the game. The explosive play rate completely plummets with Flacco.

Sure, Flacco completed a few more passes and made a couple throws that Richardson ultimately would have missed, but was it worth sacrificing the explosives and the run game to get a prettier completion percentage?

That ultimately brings me back to the main point of this conversation; Steichen. With a mobile quarterback at the helm, a lot of issues with play-calling and play design can be covered up. Mobile quarterbacks naturally influence the run game and create outside of structure enough to where a play-caller doesn't have to be perfect from down to down because the quarterback can bail him out.

That isn't the case with a pocket passer like Flacco. For Flacco to work, everything around him needs to be perfect to find success. The run game needs to be creative and diverse, pass catchers need to be open, and there needs to be answers for what the defense is throwing at the offense at all times, or disaster will strike. A game like this without a mobile quarterback to cover up the issues showcased how flawed this offense is right now from a play-calling perspective.

Credit to Flores for mixing in some Cover 1 on 3rd downs as a changeup.

But when you haven't taken a RZ snap the entire night, have 0 offensive pts, it's 3rd&6 on the +44, and it's still tied.. someone has to make a play.

The call isn't ideal. But someone has to make a play. pic.twitter.com/lmMa19F89I

— Colts Film Room (@ColtsFilmRoom) November 4, 2024

Steichen is a smart coach who has been doing this for a long time. He is a much better play-caller and play sequencer than what he has shown this season. I don't know how much of the Richardson decision ultimately came down to him, but regardless, he has made his bed with this move at quarterback. He needs to find some sort of answer for this offense going forward or he will be the one to pay for it come this offseason.

Steichen is too good of a coach for this offense to look this inept. Even with substandard quarterback play, the results on the field simply aren't good enough. The Colts asked Richardson to look in the mirror at his own flaws all week, but maybe it's time for Steichen to do the same with himself and figure out some sort of identity or staple for his offense going forward.

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