INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday spent Monday night defending the team’s late-game clock management.
Less than 24 hours later, Saturday acknowledged he made the wrong call.
After watching game tape, rethinking the situation and reflecting on what could been done differently, Saturday essentially owned up to making a rookie coaching mistake.
“I wish I had that third down back. In all honesty, I wish I would’ve used a timeout. Just looking at it on film — I looked at it last night again, looked at it this morning again,” he said Tuesday. “From a time perspective, I felt good. But you could tell we were in disarray. Looking back, it’s a learning experience.”
Perhaps that’s to be expected from someone with no prior coaching experience at the pro or college level and who wasn’t even with the team until November.
But Saturday isn’t the only one experiencing growing pains this season in Indy (4-7-1).
First-time play-caller Parks Frazier thought he could catch Pittsburgh off-guard with a quick running play on third-and-3 in the final minute.
Instead, a miscommunication had the Colts scrambling to line up properly — costing them 29 precious seconds and eventually the game.
It’s been a mess all season, filled with a mishmash of lineups and general mistakes.
The Colts spent most of the first half this season trying to patch a leaky offensive line before finally settling on rookie Bernhard Raimann at left tackle and second-year lineman Will Fries at right guard.
Both have struggled with penalties and missed assignments, though Saturday appears content to live with their miscues, at least for now.
Second-year quarterback Sam Ehlinger lost his first two NFL starts despite having only one turnover.
Still, he was sacked 11 times before Matt Ryan reclaimed the starting job. Ryan produced solid showings in Saturday’s first two games as coach before committing two more turnovers in Monday’s 24-17 loss.
Defensively, the Colts have been unable to protect fourth-quarter leads in their past three home games, and offensively, Indy has been unable to take advantage of its final possessions all three times.
The predictable result: since winning Saturday’s debut, Indy has lost two straight and five of six overall and has all but sealed its postseason fate with plenty of blame to go around.
“I thought we could get it off quicker than we did, that’s on me understanding what personnel is in the game, what formations we were in and the guys getting back to their natural positions of where they are going to line up,” Saturday said. “I thought we had the advantage but unfortunately, should’ve hit the timeout, given us our best play, best opportunity.”
