The desperate Indianapolis Colts (8-7) were fighting for their increasingly slim playoff odds, but if you want to blame someone after falling to the San Francisco 49ers (11-4), 48-27, on Monday Night Football, don’t blame grizzled veteran Philip Rivers (i.e., ‘Grandpa Phil’).
The 44-year-old longtime veteran quarterback, who shockingly unretired two weeks ago and had the same amount of practice time with his teammates, showed a lot of shades of the former 8x NFL Pro Bowler he once was for the Chargers organization—albeit with some diminished arm strength.
Given the unique circumstances, he was every bit of excellent in primetime tonight, relatively speaking.
Rivers completed 23 of 35 pass attempts for 277 total passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, and an interception—which as ESPN analyst and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman pointed out, wasn’t actually his fault (as specifically, rookie tight end Tyler Warren turned his head too soon in his receiving route).
Rivers was incredibly surgical, recognizing the 49ers defense at the line of scrimmage, getting the Colts in the proper play call, and rapidly progressing through his passing reads to make the right throw. He led the Colts to two lengthy touchdown scoring drives, on each of their two first offensive possessions. Each capped off by a touchdown throw to Indy breakout leading wideout Alec Pierce—who’s poised for a major pay day this offseason.
The problem is the Colts were too banged up, depleted, and not well coached enough to overcome two things tonight.
First, Colts kick returner Ameer Abdullah’s fumble on their would-be second offensive drive, which led directly to a 49ers touchdown, and put Indianapolis down 14-7—which they’d tie, but never regain the lead again. Having opted to receive first, it essentially meant the 49ers got two extra possessions (*receiving the ball after halftime too).
Two, the defense, aside from a safety Cam Bynum interception off 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy with 4:47 left in the 4th quarter and the Colts already down 41-27, laid a complete egg in this one.
It was devastating for the Colts ever-dwindling playoff chances and highly surprising, especially after how strong the defense played in Seattle collectively last week.
The 49ers offense put up 41 points in this one and never punted.
San Francisco’s offense put up 440 total yards, was 7 for 11 on third down, and controlled time of possession 33:05 to 26:55.
Theoretically beforehand, the Colts needed Rivers to be efficient, effective, and manage the game to hopefully win this critical football game at home, not be prime Peyton Manning without the resemblance of a defense.
The Colts defense couldn’t stop anyone though.
Indy’s normally stout run defense was a sieve.
The linebackers couldn’t cover as usual.
The replacement outside cornerbacks couldn’t cover.
The pass rush was nonexistent again with just a single sack by Laiatu Latu.
Under the bright lights of primetime, it was nothing short of a defensive disaster by the Colts and realistically closed the books on their playoffs chances with two weeks to go—capping off yet another late season collapse.
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