Colts Outmatched at Home as They Allow Saints to 'Get Right'

The Indianapolis Colts fell at home to the New Orleans Saints, 38-27, as they begin to spiral.

The Indianapolis Colts are not in a good spot.

A week after losing a one-point game that had everyone pointing fingers at the officials, the Colts had an opportunity to flip the script and take care of business against a very beatable New Orleans Saints team on Sunday who had lost four of their last five games coming into the week.

But that's not what happened.

The Colts led 17-7 midway through the second quarter but then the Saints reeled off a 28-3 run that lasted midway through the fourth when the hosts were finally able to score again. However, it was too little, too late as the Colts ultimately fell, 38-27, losing three straight games.

They now hold a 3-5 record as any hopes they had for the postseason begin to dwindle.

Here are my takeaways from the game.

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—Gardner Minshew played a cleaner game but the Colts still lost. Minshew turned the ball over four times each in Weeks 6 and 7, which each opponent turned into 17 points. You can directly point at those turnovers and make an argument that the Colts could've won otherwise. Minshew only turned the ball over once against the Saints, but that wasn't the magic elixir that fixed the outcome. Credit to Minshew for doing a better job of taking care of the ball on Sunday, but the defense wasn't up to the task of holding up its end of the bargain. 

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—Jonathan Taylor dominates the first half, held back in second half. Taylor has had a rapid upward trajectory the last several games after making his season debut four weeks ago, but even though Taylor and the Colts were killing the Saints on the ground in the first half, they abandoned the run in the second half. Taylor had 11 carries for 94 yards (8.5 avg.) in the first half but then the offense ran the ball six times total in the second half, including just once from Taylor. Head coach Shane Steichen was asked about this after the game and acknowledged that Taylor wasn't hurt but rather Zack Moss got some momentum and then the Colts were in a lot of passing situations in the second half. 

—Where is the pass rush? The Colts sacked Saints quarterback Derek Carr just once, but even worse, hit him only twice. The New Orleans aerial attack was repeatedly able to hit on chunk plays, and issues in coverage aside, Carr had plenty of time to make his progressions and find who he wanted. Once again, the Colts defense is having huge lapses in time between performances where they are able to put pressure on the quarterback.

—The cornerback group is a problem, and it's not because of the youth. Coming into the season, it was fairly obvious the Colts' cornerbacks would have some growing pains. Darrell Baker Jr. and Dallis Flowers were both asked to play significant snaps for the first time while rookies JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones developed behind them. Since then, Baker has been relegated to the sidelines for performance issues and Flowers suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. Brents has been starting but injured his quad last week. That meant Tony Brown would need to step up against the Saints, and it went quite poorly. Brown gave up several big gains through the air including a pair of deep shots to Rashid Shaheed, who had 153 yards on the day. Brown was clearly struggling but the coaching staff still declined to replace him in the lineup. The Colts had options, including using either Julian Blackmon or Nick Cross in the slot so that Kenny Moore could play outside with Jones. What's for certain is that the Colts need Brents to heal up, fast.

—Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Following last week's loss, a frustrated Michael Pittman Jr. lamented, "Maybe I'm not a big part of the offense" after being targeted only five times overall for the game and not at all until near the end of the first half. The Colts rectified that on Sunday as Pittman was targeted 13 times. It only resulted in 8 catches for 40 yards (5.0 avg.) but they clearly were trying to get him involved. The ball went to Pittman on Minshew's first six targets of the day and seven of the first nine.

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