3 Good, 3 Bad in Colts’ Loss to Falcons

On a day when Gardner Minshew had big trouble finding open receivers, Colts tight ends Kylen Granson and Will Mallory tried to help lead the charge.

With wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. out for this game to recover from a huge hit absorbed in Week 15, the Colts were thin at effective pass-catchers, but it was Granson (5 catches, 62 yards) and Mallory (4 catches, 47 yards) that were atop the receiving yards.

Out of Minshew’s 201 passing yards, these two accounted for 109 of them. Even Mo Alie-Cox was involved and targeted, but would mostly be used in blocking sets.

Look for head coach Shane Steichen to try and work more of Granson and Mallory into the vertical offense, as they both showed talent in getting open and making plays.

With initial starter Desmond Ridder benched, passing veteran Taylor Heinicke got the nod to start. What he did with his mostly clean pocket was dice the Colts for 229 yards on 23 completions, adding a passing touchdown to tight end Kyle Pitts.

The Colts came into this game with 46 team sacks and a top-10 pass rush, but only defensive end Kwity Paye got to Heinicke, who operated with ease and little pressure from anyone.

This Falcons offensive line has skilled players but was up-and-down coming into this game due to curious play calls and injuries. Without a lot of reason to feel rushed, Heinicke’s pocket presence, mixed with the lack of Colts defensive pressure, resulted in an efficient day for the veteran QB.

With the Las Vegas Raiders and rookie Aiden O’Connell next, the Colts will look to get back to sacking the QB and putting added pressure on opposing offenses.

On a day when the Colts defenders had issues making efficient tackles, E.J. Speed stood out in spades.

While Zaire Franklin grabbed 12 tackles, Speed led with 13, including 10 solo, 2 passes defended, and a tackle for loss.

This was a poor game defensively for Indianapolis, so it wasn’t the easiest to locate high-level positives, but Speed was one of them.

Look for Speed to play with added motivation on New Year’s Eve, as his possible career-best performance wasn’t enough to carry the defense to play better football.

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The gameplan was simple: Don’t allow Falcons running backs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier to gain momentum and gash the defense for solid runs. This would ultimately put the offense on Heinicke’s shoulders entirely and allow the Colts to get after him in the pocket.

However, these backs dominated and set the pace for the entire game. Below are the metrics from both ball carriers on the day.

• Bijan Robinson: 12 carries for 72 yards (6.0 avg); 7 catches for 50 yards (7.1 avg)
• Tyler Allgeier: 9 carries for 69 yards (7.7 avg); 1 catch for 19 yards

When it was all said and done, these two put together 210 all-purpose yards, accounting for over half of Arthur Smith’s offense on the day (406 total yards as a team).

This is a huge boost for the confidence of the Falcons, but a hard lesson for the Colts. They’ve not been the best against the ground this year and, even with DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart in, were manhandled in the trenches.

Along with the aforementioned tight end duo of Granson and Mallory, rookie Josh Downs had to help Minshew with the quick-release passes and did what he could with limited NFL experience and offensive assistance.

He led the team with 6 total catches but was tackled right away most of the time for only 39 yards. This put his average per catch at just 6.5.

However, with Alec Pierce not performing up to speed, more responsibility was put on Downs than was likely wanted pre-game.

Downs continues to showcase he has number-one receiver skills but is still too young to be leaned on that much with little else to help him offensively.

The positive note is that the Colts have shown the league they got Downs for a steal in the 2023 draft, getting him in the third round. Downs will try to get more yards per reception in the final two games of 2023’s regular season.

Yet again, rookie fourth-rounder Blake Freeland showed he isn’t an effective pass-blocking tackle, at least not this year.

While Freeland has shown glimpses of fantastic run-blocking, he has been steadily mediocre to awful in keeping pass-rushers away from Minshew. While Freeland was bad, the rest of the offensive line was also underwhelming in pass protection with him.

Minshew was constantly under pressure and on the ground, being sacked 6 times and hit an incredible 11 times. Falcons defensive end Zach Harrison (2.0) and 16-year ageless wonder defensive tackle Calais Campbell (1.5) accounted for over half of Atlanta’s sacks.

This cannot continue, as the Colts have to face Maxx Crosby (Raiders) next, who has destroyed QBs and has 13.5 sacks on the season.

Could Freeland be benched for veteran signee Jared Veldheer at right tackle if Braden Smith can’t start? It’s a real possibility, as the Colts, while down now, are still not out of the playoff race and need to keep Minshew upright to run Steichen’s offense.