Insider: Colts offensive line fails to live up to reputation in playoff loss to Chiefs
Joel A. EricksonKANSAS CITY, Mo. — This wasn’t supposed to be the way this Colts season ended.
Maybe it would end against these Chiefs, their MVP-caliber, otherworldly quarterback and his endless cache of weapons too much to overcome on the road. Maybe Patrick Mahomes would simply put too many points on the board.
But not like this. Not with the Indianapolis offense punchless and powerless, the offensive line that had remade its reputation during the Colts’ magical comeback run brought to its knees by Kansas City’s imperfect, faulty defense.
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With its horsepower limited, the Indianapolis offense never came close to matching Mahomes blow-for-blow in a 31-13 loss that brought the Colts’ comeback season to an unsatisfactory conclusion.
“Wow,” head coach Frank Reich said. “Was not expecting it to end today.”
Reich had reason to believe in his Colts, even as a No. 6 seed traveling into one of the NFL’s most hostile environments to take on a transcendent quarterback and the top-seeded Chiefs.
His offensive line might have been the biggest reason. After struggling nearly all of Andrew Luck’s career to give him the kind of protection he needed up front, the Colts finally hit on the right combination this season by drafting Quenton Nelson to play left guard and Braden Smith to play on the right, only to find out that things worked better if they kicked Smith out to tackle and started Mark Glowinski at right guard.
When those three were able to line up with Anthony Castonzo at left tackle and Ryan Kelly in the middle, Indianapolis became something the Colts had never been in the Luck era: A bruising, road-grading offense capable of beating a team in a lot of different ways. Entering Saturday’s divisional playoff, Indianapolis had rushed for 5.1 yards-per-carry and 158.7 yards per game in the six games its starting five was available, and that configuration hadn’t given up a single sack.
By comparison, Kansas City’s defense seemed like cannon fodder.
The Chiefs finished 31st in the NFL in total defense and on a per-play basis against the run. On a snowy, cold day at Arrowhead, the Colts seemed like a team perfectly built to bring the high-flying Chiefs down into a knock-down, drag-out brawl in the mud.
Kansas City’s defensive front ended up landing almost all of the big punches.
The Chiefs hit Marlon Mack in the backfield on three of his first five carries, batted down two of Luck’s passes by pushing the pocket into his lap on the Colts’ second series, sacked him on the third, and Indianapolis went three-and-out on its first four drives.
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“I’m not going to lie, they’re a good front, but the lack of success in the running game is more of what we did,” center Ryan Kelly said. “That starts with me. I could have put us in a more successful scheme.”
By the time Najee Goode blocked a Kansas City punt and Zach Pascal recovered for a touchdown to give the Colts some life, Kansas City already had a 17-0 lead and the Colts were without a first down.
“It’s hard to give that team that start,” Reich said. “It’s beyond me. We’ve been so good so early in the game, generally speaking, all year.”
A Colts team that had opened its past two games against Tennessee and Houston by methodically building 14-0 leads suddenly found itself on the other side of the coin.
And Kansas City’s front four, led by edge rushers Dee Ford and Justin Houston, found itself in a position every pass rusher wants to be.
Attack mode.
Indianapolis might have led the NFL in fewest sacks allowed this season, but the Chiefs’ one strength on defense is a pass rush that tied for the NFL lead with 52 sacks, and edge rushers Dee Ford and Justin Houston realized they could blindly rush at Luck without the threat of the run.
“We were in a two-minute drill the majority of the game, because we needed to make up some ground that we did to ourselves, basically,” Smith said. “You just have increased opportunities when it’s easier to predict what’s coming.”
Houston sacked Luck twice. Ford got him once, a strip-sack that eliminated a scoring chance handed to the Colts offense by brilliant rookie linebacker Darius Leonard. Leonard forced a fumble that punctuated a solid second half in which Indianapolis stopped the Chiefs on five consecutive drives, giving the Colts offense every chance to get back into the game the way it had against Oakland, the New York Giants and Miami earlier this season.
Kansas City’s front simply wouldn’t allow Luck to pull off the same kind of magic trick he pulled off five years ago. Then, the Chiefs led 38-10 early in the second half before Luck led his team to a 45-44 victory.
Under pressure all night long, Luck never got anything consistent going, and although the Colts ended up running for 87 yards on 14 carries, nearly all of those yards came in the fourth quarter.
“I’m surprised any time anybody has success against us,” left tackle Anthony Castonzo said. “We go out there, we expect to kind of control the game.”
Kansas City’s defense took control instead, limiting Indianapolis to just 263 yards, the Colts’ lowest output of the entire season.
“Against that offense, we knew we were going to have to be sharper than that,” Reich said.
Or at least something closer to what the Colts offense had been all season long.