"Anytime you play a team like the Colts, there are certain things you have to do to give yourself a chance of winning the game. There are a number of things we talked about prior to the game that we were able to do and a number of things we didn't get done. Field position, when you look at the three games (the Colts) lost, was in big favor of the teams that have beaten the Colts. We really had somewhat of a wash. They had 10 drives and their average drive start was the 30. We had nine drives and our average drive was the 28. Both teams took over the ball in the opponents' half of the field one time. On the very first possession when we threw the interception, they took over on the 37 and went down and scored a touchdown. On about the fourth possession we returned a punt down to the 42 and scored a touchdown.
"We ran into problems with a few turnovers. One of those ended up a touchdown, the other was at a critical time in the two-minute situation at the end of the first half where we had the ball down on the 37-yard line and we fumbled the snap. We were looking to get the ball within field goal range so we could make it a 14-10 game at halftime. They didn't turn the ball over. We had three fumbles out but we didn't recover any of them. They were plus-two in the takeaway-giveaway and they were big factors in the game.
"The negative production we had really hindered us and took us off-schedule many times offensively. We felt we had to go in and execute with a high degree of efficiency. We had the five false starts and five sacks. When you're playing against a team like the Colts, you can't have two turnovers, five sacks and five false starts.
"The one thing I was pleased with was the way our team kept its poise and battled back. The game started out tough. The Colts scored on their first two possessions. We saw when we played them the first time up there, that they got up on us quick. The game played into their hands and it became a one-dimensional game very quick. Going in, a big part of our plan was to try to not let that happen. From that point on, they didn't score a touchdown the rest of the day. To me, that's a credit to our defense, to battle and keep them out of the end zone, especially as tough as the game started out. I thought our offense had two solid drives after that, where we had four or five first downs and went down and got touchdowns.
"Most of these games come down to who makes the plays in critical situations. I think there was 6:10 to go in the game and we have the ball on 44-yard line, it's third and two and they're up 20-14. You're looking to go down and hopefully score the touchdown and put the winning points on the board. We didn't convert it. That's what happens. When you look at a team like the Colts, there is a reason they are the number one offense in the league and the number one scoring team in the league. You have to match their efficiency. They've won the division twice. They are the standard bearer in our division. You look throughout our division and we've beaten Jacksonville three out of the five times we've played them, we beat Tennessee both games this year. We haven't beaten the Colts, yet. Give them credit. They have a good combination going now. I think their offense and defense complement each other.
"Special teams was somewhat of a wash. I thought we did a good job of punting the football. We had a 41-yard net. As far as the field position off the kickoffs, it was 26 to 24. There wasn't much difference there. Offensively, we felt we had to go in and run the football. We did run the ball a lot up there, because the game got out of control. We ran the ball yesterday 28 times for 148 yards and 5.3 per rush. I thought Domanick ran as well as he has all year. I think our run game has come around the last three games. We've been far more productive and look more like what I'd like to see us look like, in terms of running the football. We did a good job when we got down in the red zone. We were two-for-two down in the red zone. One of things running the ball did for us was let us win 52 percent of the time on first down. I think we were 12 of 23, which kept the down and distance in our favor and enable us to stay with our plan.
"As I mentioned, the two turnovers, five false starts and five sacks knocked us off schedule many times. When you're playing the Colts, you know a big part of their plan is to get you into definite pass situations. They play a soft cover two and work to take the big play away. You have to understand that. A lot of times, if you're trying to force the big play into their zones, that's when you come up with big turnovers. We didn't have any big plays in the pass game, that was certainly a factor. What we did on our first and second down pass was very efficient and I thought what we did on our first and second down run game was efficient.
"Defensively, I thought we did a good job defending their run by the way we played them. I think we controlled the run game. He ran it 30 times for a 101 yards, 3.3. yards per carry. When you're playing the Colts, you'd like to have them gain 3.3 yards per play, as opposed to eight yards per pass play. We did a much better job on third down. We won seven of the 11 snaps on third down, which was much better than what we did up there in the first game. I thought our guys played very physical. We only had one penalty, a chucking call down the field.
"Then thing we didn't get done, is the three fumbles on the ground without any takeaways. You've always have to work to get takeaways against this offense, just because of how good they are. The first two series were tough, they got two touchdowns. The other thing we have to improve on, in the four-minute situation at the end of the game, after we didn't make our third down, we got them in a third down situation. They did a nice job of converting their third down and they moved the ball down to give themselves a chance to kick the field goal to put them up nine points. That's a credit to them.
"They've won the division title two years in a row. It's something for anybody in the division is to win the division, it's certainly our goal. We have to take a good look at what it's going to take for us to compete and compete on a winning note against the Colts as we move forward."
