Colts Facing Must-Win Situation: Colts Need Desperate Intervention to Save Season
The Indianapolis Colts could show up to the stadium on Sunday with nothing to play for.
Or the scenario may call for a victory so they can remain alive in the AFC playoffs.
Either way, the Colts’ postseason fate hangs on other teams as they enter Sunday’s game against the lowly New York Giants at East Rutherford, N.J.
Indianapolis (7-8) is mathematically alive in the playoff hunt but trails the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos by two games with two contests left.
The Chargers and Broncos both have games on Saturday. If both nine-win clubs win, the Colts will be eliminated and miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is well aware of the team’s predicament and scenarios entering the game against the Giants (2-13), who have lost a franchise-record 10 straight games.
“We still have an opportunity, with some help from other people,” Richardson said. “But we just taking it one game at a time because it doesn’t do us any good if everybody else does what they have to do to help us out and then we don’t go out there and take advantage of it.”
Richardson (back/foot) sat out practice Thursday and the Colts remain confident his ailments will improve. If not, veteran Joe Flacco could be in line to start against New York.
Flacco was just 1-3 as a starter when Richardson was sidelined or benched earlier this season. But Flacco (nine touchdowns, five interceptions) has a superior touchdown-to-interception ratio than Richardson (eight TDs, 12 interceptions) and has completed 66.5 percent of his passes compared to Richardson’s 47.7 percent.
No matter who starts, the game plan will revolve around star running back Jonathan Taylor, who rushed for 218 yards and three scores on 29 carries during last weekend’s 38-30 home win over the Tennessee Titans.
It was Taylor’s second-most rushing yards in a game behind the club-record 253 he put up against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the 2020 season.
