He Ain't Jeff Monday
The Indianapolis Colts biffed a chance to come back against the Steelers on national television, thanks in part to a mistake by their neophyte coach, just not the mistake he'll get roasted for
Before today’s sports bit… I haven’t been able to give our hat drive the launch that I’d hoped, whether that would’ve been on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Whatever It Is Sunday, Cyber Monday, or today, Giving Tuesday. I was, thanks to long covid, stay-home-for-Thanksgiving sick, so all these days have kind of blended together, marked largely by the sporting events and my various ventures outside to plod along slowly and take pictures.
So, I don’t have more details than I did three days ago, but also, I don’t expect that everyone reading this would have seen tweets about it. I’m really excited to work with State Sen. Jessica Ramos’ offices to get winter hats to asylum seekers here in Queens, and for every hoodie we sell during the drive, we’ll donate a hat. Among the details I need to work out: how you can donate without buying anything. It’s not a complicated thing, but also is the kind of thing that’s tough to get done when you’re sick. But the important thing is to get it going, and start getting toward putting hats on heads. Our hoodies are comfy and you’ll look amazing, so buy a bunch and help some folks stay warm this winter.
As for sporting events, I found myself unexpectedly engrossed in a Monday Night Football game last night between two pretty lousy teams, and…
Jeff Saturday is gonna get raked today, and rightfully so, after the novice coach presided over the Colts’ 24-17 loss to the Steelers on Monday Night Football, culminating in Indianapolis’ attempt for a last-ditch touchdown stalling out with a turnover on downs at the Pittsburgh 26.
The raking began before the game even ended, really, as time ticked off the clock and Saturday held fast to his timeouts, only finally calling one with 30 seconds left. What was he thinking? Can’t carry those timeouts over to next week, idiot.
The problem wasn’t the timeouts that Saturday didn’t use, but the one he did, upon the failure of his truly disastrous and inexplicable decision: the third down run by Jonathan Taylor for no gain.
Most likely, there was some confusion after the broken play on second-and-17, when Matt Ryan scrambled for 14 yards. As the clock continued to roll, that’s when the questions started in earnest about why Saturday wasn’t calling timeout, but the strategy could have made sense. With a better play call on third down, even an unsuccessful one, maybe it would have made sense.
If the Colts pass on third down, there are a few possible outcomes, but the main ones are a first down in the red zone and an incompletion.
With the first down, obviously you’re fine. Maybe you need to call the timeout because the play ends inbounds. At worst, you’re in the red zone with two timeouts and 25-30 seconds to run 4-6 plays and get in the end zone.
If the pass on third down is incomplete, you’ve got 4th-and-3 and the whole playbook open. Either you get that first down and the above situation applies, or Pittsburgh gets the ball, as it did, with 25 seconds left. Only, the Colts could’ve then used their timeouts to keep the Steelers out of victory formation, maybe get a last-chance punt return.
The problem was the third down call. Conserving the timeouts was a decent idea not only to be able to possibly squeeze another possession, but to make sure that if the Colts had scored, the Steelers wouldn’t get a chance to come back down the field and win — the exact scenario that played out in the Bills-Lions game on Thanksgiving.
Because of that third down call, it also seems more likely that Saturday simply wasn’t considering the timeouts than that he had a canny new clock management strategy. Still, it wasn’t a bad idea. The Colts’ tempo did have the Steelers back on their heels somewhat, and Saturday certainly wouldn’t do himself any favors by calling timeout and giving Mike Tomlin a chance to scheme against him one-on-one with the benefit of a commercial break. Saturday got outcoached enough without using the timeouts.