Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, None Are a Solution for Colts
Jeff Saturday made one final change. It did not work.
With the offense of the Indianapolis Colts continuing to sputter, Saturday made the call to bring up Nick Foles as the starting quarterback ahead of their showdown with the Los Angeles Chargers. The decline of Matt Ryan has been obvious over the past couple of weeks, as the Colts have failed to push the ball down the field. Saturday thought Foles could give the offense a spark moving forward.
“Just didn’t feel like we made enough plays offensively,” Saturday mentioned last week. “It’s no secret, we haven’t converted in the red zone and ultimately, you’ve got to make plays in the NFL and we’re not making nearly enough explosive plays and not making plays in the red zone.”
So, Foles started at quarterback against the Chargers on Monday Night Football. The result? More abysmal football.
The Colts only mustered 173 yards of total offense and failed to score a touchdown as they fell to the Chargers 20-3. Foles struggled all evening, finishing 17-of-29 (59%) for 143 yards, three interceptions, and a QB rating of 31.9. Foles looked like a third-string quarterback for much of the evening, the role he has held with the Colts for most of the season.
For all the talk about how Foles would help the Colts push the ball down the field, none of that came to fruition Monday night. The longest play of the game was a 19-yard completion to Michael Pittman Jr. The Colts were an atrocious 0-10 on third down. The only team worse at converting on third down this season? The Colts, when they went 0-14 against the New England Patriots in Week 9.
“Pretty simple – can't turn it over,” Saturday said after the game. “Got to convert on third downs offensively, get them off the field and, you know, can't leave the defense on the field.”
The defense again tried to carry the load, forcing Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert into two turnovers and sacking him four times. But when the offense is as putrid as they were Monday night, it is hard to compete.
© Robert Scheer/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
“I think we never got into a rhythm as an offense,” Foles explained. “I think the points show. I mean, three points, I mean, that's never going to be good enough. So, we never got into a rhythm as an offense that really got going. And that starts with the quarterback and we have to make sure we do a good job throughout the course of the game to try to find a rhythm.”
The fact of the matter is Foles was never going to succeed under these circumstances. You can talk about the magical run Foles had in 2017, where he came in at the end of the season and led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl victory. But the Eagles had a great team around Foles that season. The Colts do not.
The protection issues continued for the Colts as they gave up seven sacks on the evening. The Colts have now given up 56 sacks in 2022 and are on pace to break the franchise record for most sacks allowed in a season. While Saturday mentioned that some of those sacks could be attributed to coverage down the field, the pocket continued to collapse quickly on Foles.
Besides being under pressure for the majority of the evening, Foles was playing with teammates he is still getting used to. It was revealed early last week that Foles would take his first snaps with the first-team offense leading up to the game against the Chargers. These were some of his only passes to Pittman, Parris Campbell, and Alec Pierce.
“Any time there's change, you step in, and you try to get acclimated as soon as you can and, you know, get the timing down and everything,” Foles said. “We had a really good week of practice. Obviously, the execution wasn't at the level that we needed to win this game and that's unfortunate.”
© Jenna Watson/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
It was a near-impossible situation for Foles to step in and do well. Combine that with bad decisions and inaccurate throws by the veteran quarterback, and the offense looked like the worst in the NFL. At least the Denver Broncos, the only team averaging fewer points per game (15.5) than the Colts (16.5), scored a touchdown in their blowout loss to the Los Angeles Rams. And their head coach was fired after the game.
None of the quarterbacks on the Colts’ roster is the answer for this team. Father Time has caught up to Ryan, who has lost much of the velocity on his throws, cannot take care of the football, and looks slower than ever. Foles may have a stronger arm, but he cannot move well either and makes poor decisions with the football playing with guys he has hardly even practiced with.
You could argue a return to Sam Ehlinger as the starter would help, but there is little optimism he can spark the offense either. Ehlinger was 0-2 in two starts earlier this season, including the embarrassment in New England that turned out to be the final straw for former head coach Frank Reich’s tenure. Saturday and the rest of the staff obviously do not think Ehlinger can do any better, hence why he remains QB2.
None of these quarterbacks is the answer, in part, because the rest of the offense is a mess. Protection issues remain with not just the offensive line but tight ends and running backs as well. The passing game and play-calling by the Colts are so simplistic that defenses are sitting on every route. Neither of the three quarterbacks can elevate the offense enough to compensate for these issues.
The hard truth is the offense cannot be fixed this year. It will take a new coaching staff and new players at key positions for the Colts to have a competent offense once again. Until that happens, expect much of the same from this unit over the final two games.
The offseason cannot come soon enough.
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