10/2 Doyle indystar

[JAFF]

INDIANAPOLIS – Colts rookie Anthony Richardson isn’t playing the quarterback position like anybody else in the NFL. It’s not just his size and speed, which are off the charts, but his individual statistics. They’re weird and inefficient, and those are two things we do not value in this world today. We want sameness. We want efficiency.

You want wins?

They’re coming.

Indianapolis lost 29-23 to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday after roaring back from a 23-point deficit to force overtime, where the Colts lost the coin toss – and with it, the game – as the Rams drove 75 yards for the winning touchdown. By scoring a TD on the first possession of overtime, the only possession of overtime, the Rams won for two reasons:


One, the NFL overtime rule is absurd.

Two, that absurd NFL overtime rule – and that touchdown by the Rams – kept the ball away from Anthony Richardson.

Insider Joel A. Erickson: Richardson leads Colts on 23-point comeback that falls short in OT vs. Rams


Insider Nate Atkins: 10 Colts thoughts on Anthony Richardson and an overtime loss to the Rams

If the Colts had been able to get the ball one more time? God help the Los Angeles Rams. Because Anthony Richardson, in his unique and weird and inefficient way, found something in the second half.

This is what a loss looks like, the final score showing more points for the Rams than the Colts. But someday this is what winning will look like. And that day might be closer than we used to think.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) spikes the ball after scoring a touchdown during fourth quarter game action against the Los Angeles Rams at Indianapolis Colts, on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
As the kids say: Anthony Richardson is him

A few words about the loss: Get over it.

A few more: Don’t get greedy.

Three more: Patience, my friend.

The Colts (2-2) are coming. They have a quarterback. That quarterback needs some more help – he needs a lot more help – but on Sunday we saw that Richardson, when he’s on, is almost good enough to win a game by himself.


Yes, the Colts defense played well in the second half. Yes, the Rams helped. Los Angeles led 23-0 midway through the third quarter, then shut it down. The Rams offense lost its edge, or maybe it just lost interest. Whatever the case, the Colts defense was more effective in the second half. Kenny Moore II’s interception helped. Consecutive dropped passes by the Rams, each ruled a catch on the field and overturned by replay, helped. Brett Maher’s second missed field goal helped.

None of it matters – this game never goes to overtime – if Anthony Richardson isn’t him, as the kids say. But he is. He’s him. He’s the one we’ve been waiting for, and we’ll just need to wait a little bit longer, but the signs are as subtle as the blue fireworks exploding above the field after the Colts tied it at 23 with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter.

That 73-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, for example. Richardson was 4-for-5 on that possession, and the incompletion was a dropped pass by Alec Pierce. It wasn’t just the numbers, though, because as I said: Richardson’s numbers skew weird and inefficient.

For this game, for example, he was 11-for-25, which is 44%, which is terrible. Usually. And OK, it’s not good ever. Neither is his slightly elevated season accuracy of 56.9%, which is about what he did in college too. Then again, are you aware that Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, an annual MVP candidate and Super Bowl threat, completed 52.8% of his passes as a rookie, which was similar to his college numbers? Did you know Allen’s completion percentage has steadily risen to his current accuracy of 74.8%?

Guys this gifted – and with his size and playing style, Josh Allen is the only active comparison for Anthony Richardson – tend to get better, is my point. Richardson’s going to get a lot better than his 44% accuracy rate of Sunday, but even something as weird as 44% looks different when the quarterback is chucking the ball down the field and running the ball down the field and setting his first NFL record, three games into his first season. Richardson is the first rookie quarterback with four TD runs in his first three games.

Richardson threw for 200 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, which is how an NFL quarterback can go 11-for-25 (!!) and still post a passer rating of 98.8. How weird is that? Put it this way:

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford completed a lot more passes for a lot more yards with a lot more accuracy – he was 27-for-40 (67.5%) for 319 yards – but had a passer rating nearly 10 points lower (89.5). Stafford threw just one touchdown, and he did throw an interception, an incredible diving-sliding pick by Kenny Moore. But also, Stafford was dinking the ball here and dunking it there, and Richardson was chunking it everywhere.

And some of these passes, they were just ridiculous.


Colts coach, locker room get it: Richardson's goooood

The Colts started slow. Hey, point for you, if you came here looking for some negative sentences about this loss. Richardson started slow, too. He was 2-for-4 for 11 yards with a sack. The Colts were trying to help him, I think, by getting him into a quick-pass rhythm, when that’s not Richardson’s game.

His game is dropping deep into the pocket and whipping a 30-yard laser to slot receiver Josh Downs in the seam. His game is dropping deeper into the pocket, waiting for Pierce to get 40 yards down the field, seeing future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Aaron Donald in his face and then levitating – look, that’s what Richardson did – and firing a 38-yard completion to Pierce.

Richardson’s game is running to his left, running too fast for someone so large, and throwing a 21-yard bullet across his body to tight end Drew Ogletree. It’s zinging another one to Ogletree two snaps later, a 22-yarder over the middle, then sliding left in the pocket and finding Kylen Granson 17 yards down the field – on fourth-and-4 from the 21 – to set up a TD pass to Ogletree.

Richardson’s game also is throwing incompletions, though one was a sideline completion of about 20 yards to Isaiah McKenzie that was nullified when Rams safety Russ Yeast, the former Center Grove star, clubbed McKenzie out of bounds before he could get both feet down. Another incompletion was late in regulation, another pass of about 20 yards, a back-shoulder beauty to Granson that hit the Colts tight end in the No. 83 jersey in a bad spot – between the “8” and “3” – and fell for a drop.

If Granson catches that ball, the Colts have a first down at the Rams’ 45 with 1:19 left in regulation. They’d already scored 23 consecutive points in about 20 minutes of game clock. Richardson had thrown for 153 yards, two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion in the second half alone, and while he was “just” 7-for-18 for those 153 yards and two scores – his numbers are weird, remember? – his passer rating in the second half was 106.9.

He was hot, in his own weirdly inefficient way, aided by the threat of his own running ability. He had 10 carries for 56 yards, running a lot early and then throwing a lot late and having the Colts in position to win this game until Granson dropped that pass at the end of regulation. Can you see why I’m not freaking out about this loss? Maybe you’d understand more if you’d heard coach Shane Steichen’s postgame news conference, when you almost couldn’t tell by his mood if his team had won or loss. Or if you’d gone into the locker room, where the Colts were mutedly upbeat after this loss.

Because the Colts? They know. They know what they have.

Yes, they know what happened Sunday: The game goes to overtime, the Rams call “tails,” and as everyone knows, it always comes up tails. The Rams got the ball, Stafford and Co. remembered they were interested in winning after all, and that was that.

But Richardson is special in a way his numbers don’t show. Like his coach and teammates, we all saw that Sunday, and if you wanted to see it during a victory, well, be patient. The wins are coming. Give Richardson a healthy offensive line, another receiver or two, perhaps a little more sizzle at running back – hmmmm – and it’ll be like something I said earlier about the Rams, only on a larger scale:

God help the NFL.

[Racehorse]

Hard to believe Doyel wrote this.

[CletusPyle]

It's true that Granson should have made the catch, but it was not an easy catch...it was on him as soon as he turned around. It was a great throw and Granson should have been expecting it, but it's not easy to pick up a ball that quickly when you are trying to get some separation and running full speed!

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by CletusPyle

It's true that Granson should have made the catch, but it was not an easy catch...it was on him as soon as he turned around. It was a great throw and Granson should have been expecting it, but it's not easy to pick up a ball that quickly when you are trying to get some separation and running full speed!

I really hope Woods comes back this week. Get Granson back to primarily blocking with Woods and Ogletree as two legit athletic monsters at TE- could be a lot of fun!

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by CletusPyle

It's true that Granson should have made the catch, but it was not an easy catch...it was on him as soon as he turned around. It was a great throw and Granson should have been expecting it, but it's not easy to pick up a ball that quickly when you are trying to get some separation and running full speed!

Yeah, the notion that if a guy can get his hands on it, he should catch it is illogical. Some guys make remarkable attempts to catch a ball, but can barely get hands on it. If it were easy, they would all be doing it more often.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

I really hope Woods comes back this week. Get Granson back to primarily blocking with Woods and Ogletree as two legit athletic monsters at TE- could be a lot of fun!

Apparently Woods will remain on IR... that sucks

[Butter]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

Apparently Woods will remain on IR... that sucks

That sucks, I hope to see Ogletree more and more in the offense.