INDIANAPOLIS — The clamor bounced around Lucas Oil Stadium early.
Let’s Go Lions! Let’s Go Lions!
The Detroit Lions were in town Sunday afternoon, and a healthy portion of their fan base had infiltrated the 66,696 in attendance.
Let’s Go Lions! Let’s Go Lions!
Instead of doing something — anything — to quiet the unpleasant noise, the Indianapolis Colts kept fueling it with a penalty, a dropped touchdown pass, another penalty, ineffective run blocking for Jonathan Taylor, yet another penalty …
Well, you get the idea.
Dealing with the NFL’s most prolific offense and arguably its best team — commissioner Roger Goodell was on hand to view Dan Campbell’s creation — would take the Colts’ bringing their A-game and hoping that was good enough.
But responding with two failed red-zone excursions in the first half — one when tight end Drew Ogletree flat dropped what should have been an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Anthony Richardson that would have given the Colts a 10-7 lead — and the most penalties since 2022 produced the expected results.
Lions 24, Colts 6.
Credit the Lions, who did more than enough to push their record to 10-1.
But blame the Colts, who did more than enough to lose for the fourth time in five games and drop to 5-7.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game going into it,’’ Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “Then, when you hit big plays that get called back … it felt like every time we hit a 20-yarder or a 30-yarder, or something was called back.’’
He wasn’t setting himself up for disciplinary action from Goodell’s understudies for criticizing the officiating. As Steichen mentioned, he generally has a bad view of this play or that play.
He simply was lamenting the careless actions of a team that had been one of the league’s least penalized.
Consider:
- The 10 penalties were a season-high and the most since 11 in that historic meltdown against the Minnesota Vikings in 2022.
- The Colts lost roughly 98 yards on five offensive snaps of penalties. Receiver Josh Downs saw three receptions and 59 yards wiped off the stat sheet, and Taylor’s 19-yard run was erased by a hold on rookie guard Dalton Tucker. A Braden Smith holding penalty took care of tight end Kylen Granson’s 21-yard reception.
- Selective penalties resulted in Richardson facing seven plays on first, second and third down in the first three quarters that required 18 yards or more to convert. To their credit, the Colts actually converted a second-and-20 on wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr.’s punishing 30-yard catch-and-run.
“It’s hard to win a football game when you shoot yourself in the foot before the play even starts or during the play,’’ Taylor said. “For us as an offense, that has to be eliminated to even give us a chance.’’
The attraction to penalties at the most inopportune times was the overriding reason the Colts snapped one of their strong tendencies. They had zero turnovers, and Richardson wasn’t sacked, although he again avoided a few because of his 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame.
The Colts had been 37-3 in their Indy/Baltimore history with no turnovers and sacks, and hadn’t lost that level of “clean’’ game since 2013, according to Pro Football Reference.
Administer enough self-inflicted wounds and winning becomes impossible.
“Penalties hurt us,’’ Steichen said. “Starts with myself. We’ve got to get those cleaned up.
“We’ve got to play clean football going forward.’’
Indy realized the enormity of the challenge. The Lions had won eight straight and averaged 39.1 points over the last seven.
Field goals never were going to be enough. Kicker Matt Gay cleaned up two of the first three drives with 27 and 29-yard field goals, but those were opportunities lost.
Detroit countered with running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ 1-yard TD and David Montgomery’s 6-yarder. It led 14-6, and the Colts never seriously challenged.
The defense kept things within reach, but the Lions seemed to do just about as much as they needed to get the job done. They converted 9-of-15 times on third down enroute to 390 yards, 26 first downs and a big time-of-possession advantage (37:01-22:59).
This one falls at the feet of the offense.
The line started three rookies for a second straight game and, again, Taylor had little room to maneuver. He averaged 3.2 yards on 11 carries with a long of 14. Over the past two games, one of the NFL’s top backs has 92 yards on 36 attempts (2.6).
“We’ve got to get that figured out,’’ Steichen said. “That starts with me. We’ve got to get him going on the ground.’’
Steichen’s game plan included liberal use of Richardson, and he responded with a season-high 61 yards on 10 carries.
The stat line insisted Richardson had a bad day throwing — 11-of-28, 172 yards — but a few drops and throwaways tainted his afternoon.
Richardson wasn’t the problem. His performance could have been much more pleasing to the eye if he hadn’t overthrown wideout Alec Pierce on a deep crosser and receiver Ashton Dulin had gotten both feet inbounds on what would have been a 40-plus-yard completion.
“I thought he played well,’’ Steichen said. “Obviously, took care of the football. Like I said, we were in some tough situations there with … first-and-20s, second-and-longs.
“Those are hard-to-overcome sometimes, but I thought he battled like crazy throughout the whole game.’’
Richardson’s post-game refrain mirrored his colleagues.
“Whenever you’re out there playing a good team like that, you can’t beat yourself and try to beat the other team at the same time,’’ he said. “So, the penalties definitely hurt us, but that’s just getting back to the drawing board, just understanding the minor details and discipline between each and every play.’’
Richardson was asked about the emotional swing when a yellow flag would negate an explosive play.
“It’s not necessarily celebrating,’’ he said of the immediate reaction to a big play, “but there’s some type of excitement. It’s like, ‘OK, cool, we’re moving the ball.’
“But when you do see those yellow flags down there, it does hurt because it’s like, ‘Man, like what happened?’ But we’ve just got to get back to it, focus on the details and just keep playing complementary football.’’
The playoff picture
The Colts have lost four of their last five but still have a pulse in pursuit of an AFC playoff spot. They are No. 9 behind No. 7 Denver (7-5) and No. 8 Miami (5-6), but ahead of No. 10 Cincinnati (4-7).
In the AFC South, the Colts essentially trail Houston (7-5) by three games with five to play based on being swept by the Texans. Houston is doing everything within its power to keep the division interesting. It’s lost three of the last four, including Sunday’s 30-27 setback at home to Tennessee.
The closing schedule is favorable to Indy. The last five opponents are a combined 17-40.
The Colts travel to 3-9 New England Sunday, have their bye, then face a critical road test Dec. 15 at Denver.
You can follow Mike Chappell on Twitter/X at @mchappell51.
