The Indianapolis Colts were riding a roller coaster of momentum heading into Sunday’s showdown in Pittsburgh.
Frank Reich’s team was continuing to climb higher and higher with impressive wins, strong quarterback play from Philip Rivers, and a dominant run game. But eventually, that roller coaster comes barreling down.
For the Blue and White, that downfall meant blowing a 17-point lead to the Steelers. Jeff Saturday called into The Fan Morning Show on Monday to chat with Jeff Rickard and Big Joe Staysniak on what went wrong in Steel City.
“When you have a guy that’s running it like Jonathan Taylor was, I’m not sure why they ever thought that they’re not going to keep at it,” Saturday said. “It was just a frustrating way to potentially watch this season end. I went back and watched it. It was just a plethora of errors along with some tough calls and the Colts not being able to answer.”
Now with a 10-5 record and heading into Week 17’s finale versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Colts will need some help. If they want a playoff spot, they’ll need to defeat the Jaguars first and foremost.
Secondly, they’ll need one of these three things to occur. Pick your poison.
Baltimore to lose at Cincinnati
Miami to lose at Buffalo
Cleveland to lose vs Pittsburgh
All of those games kickoff at 1 PM on Sunday as well. So as the Colts wait for their 4:25 matchup with the Jaguars, they will know part of their fate before Lucas Oil Stadium gets rocking this weekend.
“I bet Pittsburgh will play the hardest of anybody with the situation of their team,” Saturday added. “I don’t think Mike Tomlin would (rest starters) because in the last month they’ve played one good quarter of football. I’m not going into the playoffs limping like that. That would be the one game where I think it would give the Colts help.”
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter how Indianapolis gets it done. They just need to find a way.
If they don’t, they potentially could become only the third 11-win team ever to miss the playoffs. The last was the 2008 New England Patriots.
It’s go time in the 317.
Tune into The Fan Morning Show weekdays from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
