The Indianapolis Colts offense did its job in a tough environment Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens, but it still wasn’t enough to come away with an upset at M&T Bank Stadium.
Led by quarterback Carson Wentz, who enjoyed a career day in the stat sheet, the Colts offense was clinging to a 16-point lead with 12 minutes left in the game. However, an epic collapse would result in a 31-25 loss in overtime as the Ravens showed the Colts what it’s like to be a true contender in the AFC.
Lacking the conviction to put away a game like that has been a noticeable trend for the Colts, and it’s something that Wentz himself sees in just five games with his new team.
“Yeah, not a fun loss. I talked to everyone after the game and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have a killer instinct at the end of the day. And that goes for me and goes for all of us. We’ve got to be able to finish games and put teams away when we’ve got them on the ropes like that,'” Wentz said Monday night following the game. “And, man, that’s a good football team and a hostile environment for us to come out swinging the way we did. We just can’t let up, we can’t let up, and we’ve got to finish the game.”
The Colts were dominating for the majority of the prime-time matchup. They carried a 25-9 lead with 12 minutes remaining in regulation. The offense totaled 513 yards and 8.1 yards per play. Wentz himself posted career-highs in passing yards (402), passer rating (128.5) and yards per attempt (11.49).
Still, it wasn’t enough to come away with what could have been a season-defining win. The Colts defense packed it in and allowed Lamar Jackson to have a historical night while leading an insane comeback.
The first three quarters were impressive on both sides of the ball. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is the Colts squandered a chance to beat a playoff-caliber team in prime-time and show the league they aren’t just an average team that beats up on bad competition.
They couldn’t prove that, though, and now it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
“This is a big one to learn from. I mean there’s a lot of good we did on, really, all three phases. Unfortunately, I have said that too many times this year – that there is good we can learn from. But, every week, it is a little better and a little better, and we have played some good teams,” said Wentz. “We just have to come out and try and go 1-0 every week and just keep learning from these little moments. Like, tonight, I mean this is a huge opportunity to show what we can do. And I thought we did a good job. Just not good enough.”
It’s still early in the season and the schedule lightens up for a stretch of games. The division is still a mess, which will give the Colts an opportunity to stay in the race.
However, finding that lack of a killer instinct to finish games isn’t something that happens overnight, and it very well could be the reason we look back on the season saying “what if?…”
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