The Indianapolis Colts needed a win against the New York Giants on Sunday, and fans started to lose their minds after the team struggled out of the gate.
With the AFC playoff race tightening up, the Indianapolis Colts were heading into Sunday’s matchup against the New York Giants needing a big win.
Unfortunately, the Colts could not have gotten off to a sloppier start.
Thanks to a ton of pre-snap penalties, sloppy defensive play and a painfully-dumb interception thrown by Andrew Luck, the Colts were facing a 14-0 deficit early in the second quarter. With a win on Sunday and another win next week against the Titans, all the Colts needed was a loss from either Baltimore or Pittsburgh to snag a wild card spot.
Instead, the Colts had an uphill battle to face against a 5-9 team without its best payer in Odell Beckham. Not surprisingly, fans and analysts lost their minds, as you can see in the tweets below.
Let's forget about Darius Leonard maybe getting 40 tackles. Lets worry about Colts D holding Giants to less than 40 points.
— Mike Chappell (@mchappell51) December 23, 2018
Horrific start by the Colts. Penalties, giving up long plays, just brutal. Giants lead 14-zip late in the first quarter. Trap game, for sure. Time to get to work.
— Bob Kravitz (@bkravitz) December 23, 2018
#Colts thoroughly embarrassed through 13 minutes. Losing at home to a bad football team 14-0 in the 1st is a hideous holiday surprise.
— Kent Sterling (@KentSterling) December 23, 2018
It would be cool if the colts started playing a little better
— Ryan Scheele (@rpscheele) December 23, 2018
So, no Colts receivers were open (a subject for another day), and Luck decided to just throw it to the wide-open Giants player instead?
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) December 23, 2018
Frank Reich’s team has done a great job rebounding from a 1-5 start to the season, and the Colts looked genuinely dangerous in their 23-0 blowout of the Dallas Cowboys last week. However, games like this are ones that you can’t come out and be relaxed in.
At this point, every game remaining is a playoff game, and if the Colts can’t ramp up the intensity against the Giants, then they can essentially kiss their hopes of a playoff berth goodbye.
There was still plenty of ball game left after going down 14-0, but Colts fans were understandably nervous.