With the opportunity to defeat the Chiefs in overtime, the Indianapolis Colts' red zone possession was stalled after the first two plays.
A deep ball to Laquon Treadwell and a call that could have gone either way but fell in the Colts' favor set Indianapolis up at the Chiefs' 17-yard line.
Wanting to put the ball in Jonathan Taylor's hands, Steichen called a run play on first down that went for a loss of a yard. Now facing a 2nd-and-11, Steichen again called a run play. This one went for a loss of two yards.
Just like that, the Colts went from being in an advantageous situation to facing a 3rd-and-13.
Steichen wanted to put the ball into the hands of his best playmaker, but the Chiefs were obviously prepared for that.
"I was trying to finish the
game with [Taylor] with the ball in his hands," Steichen said afterward,via ESPN.
After a five-yard run by Daniel Jones, it was 4th-and-8 from the Chiefs' 15-yard line. The Colts approached the line of scrimmage like they were going for it, but ended up taking a delay-of-game penalty.
Had the Chiefs given the Colts a certain look, the plan was to let it rip.
"If you love it, man, let's go at it. Let's go win this thing. But if it's not the right look … let's kick the field goal here," Steichen said.
Playing for the tie and giving Patrick Mahomes the ball with a few minutes left isn't often going to be a recipe for success. That said, going for it on fourth down just for the sake of doing so, even if it's a bad look, isn't the right play either.
On paper, Steichen's reasoning makes sense, but the results did not follow, and the game ended in another Colts' loss.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Steichen details reasoning behind red zone play calls in Colts loss
