Colts HC Jeff Saturday Didn't Think Timeouts Were Important in Last-Minute Drive vs Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers held strong on a drive that left many Indianapolis Colts fans wondering why.
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INDIANAPOLIS -- The Pittsburgh Steelers walked away winners over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 12, but it wasn't settled until the defense held strong on a last-minute drive by Matt Ryan and Indy's offense. 

The Colts started their drive on the seven-yard line with three minutes left in the ball game. It wasn't until after the final minute mark, however, that people started to question their tactics. 

With a little over a minute left, the Colts drew up two plays - one ended up being a scramble from Matt Ryan, which then led to a run for no gain by Jonothan Taylor. Afterward, they found themselves in fourth down. 

Many questioned why head coach Jeff Saturday didn't call a timeout after Ryan's run to assure the team could come up with a play. Instead, they took the clock down to 23 seconds with one chance to gain the first.

"I thought we had plenty of time, I wasn't really concerned," Saturday said after the game. "We still had timeouts. I wasn't too concerned. When [Ryan] was going down, I couldn't tell where they were gonna start him from going down, right? If he was gonna get the first down. And then we got there, I expected us to get on the ball and have another play, a little bit quicker than that. But again, this wasn't a press for time. We just didn't make enough plays."

The Colts didn't execute and the Steelers kneeled down for the win two plays later. Leaving many in the crowd wondering why.

"I just didn't think time was of the essence at that moment," Saturday said. "I thought we had a good play, I felt like we would get to it. Obviously, we didn't do great on the back half, but I felt good about the call before, I felt like we'd have time, we would have timeouts afterwards, we were in striking distance, so I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout."

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Noah Strackbein
NOAH STRACKBEIN

Noah is the Publisher for All Steelers, Inside the Panthers (InsideThePanthers.com) and Inside the Penguins (InsidethePenguins.com), and is the host of All Steelers Talk (YouTube.com/AllSteelersTalk). A Scranton native, Noah made his way to the Pittsburgh sports scene in 2017. Now, he's pretty much full-yinzer.