Poor tackling by the Cleveland Browns led to the longest play of Michael Pittman Jr.’s career as well as the Colts’ longest score since week nine of the 2021 season — 75 yards with a peace sign to finish it off on the way to the end zone from Pittman.
Gardner Minshew had thrown his second touchdown to go along with his two on the ground and the Colts held control with 5:38 remaining. The defense just had to get one stop against a P.J. Walker-led offense that had struggled to get into a groove following Deshaun Watson’s question-filled exit. Instead Walker drove Cleveland 80 yards in 12 plays capped off by a Kareem Hunt touchdown with 15 seconds remaining to give Cleveland the 39-38 lead and eventual victory.
Earlier in that drive, the game seemed to be in the Colts’ grasp as Walker dropped back on third-and-4. E.J. Speed came like a rushing bull and strip sacked Walker. The fumble was recovered by DeForest Buckner and the game was effectively over with a Colts win.
Far from the celebration of Buckner and the Colts defense was a yellow penalty marker sitting near where Darrell Baker Jr. got tangled up with Browns receiver Amari Cooper. Defensive illegal contact was the call and the boos began to fill Lucas Oil Stadium. The controversial call negated the Colts' possible victory and set the Browns up with first-and-goal from the Indianapolis 8-yard line.
Walker, forced to pass with the Browns out of timeouts, lofted the ball out of the back of the endzone where it landed beyond the spotted yellow line indicating the spot for media members to stand. However, the officials believed that Baker Jr. once again impeded the receiver’s ability to make a catch and threw the penalty flag.
Section 5, Article 3, Point C of the NFL official rulebook states that a play can’t be ruled pass interference if the intended pass is deemed uncatchable: “Contact that would normally be considered pass interference, but the pass is clearly uncatchable by the involved players.”
“It was uncatchable,” Baker Jr. said postgame, but the officials disagreed, giving Cleveland the ball at the Indianapolis 1-yard line with a fresh set of downs.
Walker missed tight end David Njoku on first and second down as well as Elijah Moore on third. The Colts held strong for the first three downs at the goal line, but a defense can only do so much, as Hunt plunged in off his left guard scoring the game-winning touchdown by mere inches.
“Honestly, stuff like this is gonna make you stronger,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said postgame. “It stinks. There’s no doubt about it, everyone’s frustrated.”
Steichen also commented on having to clean up the turnover mistakes his team has been plagued with, now having committed eight turnovers in the span of two weeks. The team has only won five games in its history when turning the ball over four times in one game.
Minshew, once again, committed all four turnovers, this week throwing one interception and fumbling three times. His five fumbles this season are tied for the most he’s had in any season since his rookie year.
“It was definitely a roller coaster of a game,” Minshew said postgame. “Once again, you know, just turnovers really bit us there.”
The most costly turnover resulted in the Colts’ endzone as Myles Garrett was checked by tight end Andrew Ogletree to no avail, and then made right tackle Blake Freeland look like a JV player as he stripped Minshew resulting in a Tony Fields II score.
The loss for the Colts was not all a failure though, as the offensive weapons produced in bulk on Sunday.
Jonathan Taylor had his best production of the season, netting 18 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown and he was helped in the backfield by Zack Moss who pitched in another 57 yards. The Browns defense came into the game fifth in the league in rush defense, but the Colts cemented themselves in the ground game accumulating 168 yards total.
Josh Downs had the best game of his young career with five catches totaling 125 yards and a score. Pittman, as mentioned earlier, added 83 yards to go with his touchdown.
The sour taste in the Colts’ mouth this week will be the two controversial calls against Baker Jr., but with the announcement this week that quarterback Anthony Richardson will have his season cut short, the Colts have plenty of issues to solve, turnovers being the most pressing.
Indianapolis enters its next five games facing opponents with a combined 10-22 record so far this season. If there is a time for the Colts to flip the script on this roller coaster season, it is now.
