Crashing down to reality against one of the best teams in the NFL
MVP of the Game: Nick Cross / Michael Pittman Jr.
Nick Cross finished the game leading the team in tackles with 14, two for a loss, while Pittman led the team in total yards with 96 and was the only offensive player that had a good day on Sunday. It is hard to write something positive, as the Colts got dominated, but Cross’ emergence as the starting safety has been one of the brightest spots this year, and MPJ was going through a considerable slump so him having a nice game with AR at quarterback is encouraging for the future.
Dud of the Game: Offensive line
Missing Bernhard Raimann, Ryan Kelly, and Will Fries was more than the depth on the offensive line could handle. Goncalves handled his own on the left, but surprisingly Quenton Nelson had one of the worst games in his entire career. Not a reason to worry as anyone can have a bad day, but when the Colts needed everything to be perfect in order to have a chance of winning, having your All-Pro guard put up a stinker is not the right way to go. Bortolini has been more than decent in place of Kelly, but he is still a rookie, prone to rookie mistakes. The weak link has clearly been Dalton Tucker, the starter after Fries went down with a season-ending injury, and after another bad game, I believe the Colts will go to veteran Mark Glowinski next week.
Best play of the Game: Defensive stop on 4th down inside the redzone
Probably the last play I had a sliver of hope that the Colts could manage to pull off the improbable upset. The Lions had the ball on the Colts’ 14-yard line facing 4th and 1, with a conversion there meaning likely seven more points and putting the game completely out of reach. Instead, Grant Stuard and Dayo Odeyingbo got the stop and gave the Colts the ball back. Unfortunately after that the Colts got just two first downs in their next four drives, and the Lions managed to score another touchdown to end the game.
Worst play of the game: Any offensive play after the first drive
On the first half, the offense was actually competent, and managed a couple of red-zone drives that they could not finish. That all vanished in the second, and has been the case many times when down, the Colts completely abandon the running game, and trust Richardson to play hero-ball with a banged up offensive line.
Unsung Hero: Rigoberto Sanchez
Sanchez had another impressive game, and was one of the main reasons why the score was not worse at the end of the day. Despite the Colts’ offense not getting any sort of traction whatsoever, Sanchez made sure that the field position battle was not entirely lost, averaging 52.8 yards on six punts, and getting two inside the Lions’ 20-yard line. In an ideal world he would not be punting the ball away nearly as much, but at least he is killing it when he gets his chances.
Rookie of the Week: Laiatu Latu
Latu continues showing his refined pass-rushing moves, and is now getting consistently in the sack column after a slow start in that department. This time it was a strip sack on Jared Goff that the Lions managed to recover, but it was still another impressive game for the rookie edge-rusher against a really solid offense. He will have a better matchup next week against a rookie quarterback in Drake Maye.
