After an embarrassing loss to the sad sack New York Giants on Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts were officially eliminated from the playoffs. Colts head coach Shane Steichen was asked about his job security, and he had a pretty direct answer.
“I control what I can control,” Steichen said, via NFL Media.
Steichen also addressed the loss itself, and took the blame on his shoulders for his team’s performance.
“It was disappointing as it gets,” Steichen said. “As the leader of the football team, I always say that I’ve got to be better. We’ve all got to be better. It’s a group effort. Everyone’s got to chip in and do their part so stuff like that doesn’t happen.”
The Colts gave up an incredible 389 yards and 45 points to a Giants offense that had topped 350 yards just twice all season, and hadn’t scored more than 29 points in any game. In fact, in the five previous games since their bye week, the Giants had scored only 59 points combined. New York entered the game having loss 10 in a row, while the Colts had alternated wins and losses over the previous five weeks to improve their record to 7-8 and give themselves an outside shot at making the playoffs.
Instead, they suffered one of the most egregious losses of the season despite that they had what was likely a top-three offensive performance all year. They totaled the third-most yards and third-most points they had in any game this season, but were done in by three turnovers and an entirely unacceptable defensive performance.
It’s the kind of performance that can cost even excellent coaches their jobs, if ownership decides to move in that direction. We’ll find out next week if Steichen is one of those coaches.
