Doyel: I wanted to know, is this who Matt Ryan is becoming? So I asked him
INDIANAPOLIS – You assume Matt Ryan can play better than this, but you don’t know. How could we know? All we’ve seen of Ryan in an Indianapolis Colts uniform are the first two games of the 2022 NFL season, and they’ve been as bad as any two-game stretch in his 15-season NFL career. He generally plays better than this, in other words, and has always rebounded from poor stretches.
But he’s 37.
Is he over the hill? Have the Colts, whose luck with quarterbacks since 2019 has been terrible, signed over their franchise to a washed-up quarterback? At this point, you have to wonder. How can we not wonder?
Some people, they believe Ryan will be fine. Why? Because they want it to happen. The rest of us, we believe what we see. And in two games from Ryan we’ve seen five fumbles, four interceptions and one touchdown pass.
In Atlanta, his only two-game stretch approaching this level of ineptitude occurred during losses to Dallas and New England – combined score: 68-3 – when he had one fumble, four INT's and no TD's. Maybe that’s worse than these last two games, maybe not. It’s close.
For sure, we know when it happened: Last season. And the Falcons sure gave up on the 36-year-old Ryan, didn’t they? They flirted so obscenely with Houston Texans pariah Deshaun Watson, Ryan asked for a trade. He got one, here.
His first two games with the Colts: Four fumbles and an interception in a 20-20 tie with Houston, then three interceptions and a fumble in that 24-0 loss Sunday at Jacksonville. You add it up – his play, his age, the way the Falcons moved on – and you wonder: Is this who Matt Ryan is becoming?
As nicely as I could, I asked him Wednesday.
Wishful thinking wins the day again
Ryan is waiting for us at his locker, as he does every Wednesday. Normally he’s watching us enter the room at 12:45 p.m., waiting for us to gather around and ask questions. He wants to get his weekly briefing out of the way so he can get on with his day.
On this particular Wednesday, Ryan isn’t quite ready. He’s holding one of those laminated play cards quarterbacks put in a clear plastic sleeve around their non-throwing forearm. He’s trying to slide the play card into the sleeve. He’s smiling, he’s sheepish, he’s asking us for a moment.
Sure. Least we can do. The questions for Ryan won’t be the friendliest, and it starts with me: Matt, how well are you playing, compared to how well you can play?
“I don’t think I’m playing as well as I can, for sure,” he said, “but I’ve also learned it’s never as far off as you think. Keep plugging away, get a little bit of momentum, I think I’ll be fine. The same goes for us as a group. We all need to do our part, just be a little bit better, a little bit tighter across the board, but I have a lot of confidence that we will.”
The Colts are leading the league in wishful thinking these days, but it’s all they have. Coach Frank Reich and two players, defensive tackle Grover Stewart and receiver Ashton Dulin, had been oddly positive on Monday after watching film of that 24-0 loss, and we heard more of the same Wednesday.
“It’s the old adage: It’s never as good (as you think), never as bad,” Ryan said. “There are positives in there. There are good plays … I just think we’ve been inconsistent.”
Ryan then referenced his 2010 season in Atlanta, when “the Steelers smashed us in the opener” but the Falcons rallied for home-field edge for the playoffs. That’s not entirely true, you know. The Steelers didn’t “smash” the Falcons, winning 15-9 in overtime, and as Ryan will remind me in a moment – you’ll see – context matters:
The 2010 Steelers were in the middle of an 18-year stretch of finishing .500 or better, and Pittsburgh reached the Super Bowl that year.
Jacksonville, which did smash the Colts last week, is not Pittsburgh. The Jaguars are hapless, on a run of 10 double-digit losing seasons in 11. They are not going to the Super Bowl.
No matter. Wishful thinking is sustaining the Colts. Self-belief can help, you understand, so keep that in mind when you hear what Nyheim Hines said Wednesday.
“It’s only been two games,” Hines said. “You never know, we could win the next 15.”
You never know.
Better with Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce
One thing we do know: Ryan hasn’t been good enough.
Maybe he gets a lot better. There are reasons for hope, starting with the likely return Sunday against Kansas City (ugh) of No. 1 receiver Michael Pittman (quadriceps) and second-round pick Alec Pierce (concussion protocol), who missed the Jacksonville. Without them, Ryan was 16-for-30 for 195 yards and three interceptions.
With Pittman and Pierce the previous week against Houston, Ryan had been 32-for-50 for 352 yards, one touchdown and one interception. It’s fair to note – it must be noted – that Ryan had started slowly that day and got going only after the Texans took a 20-3 lead and dropped back into a prevent defense, giving up short, easy completions in the hope the Colts wouldn’t have enough time to tie the score. Houston miscalculated.
The Colts cannot be so naïve. Ryan’s numbers against Houston, as I’ve shown you, were misleading. So were his numbers against Jacksonville, which I’ll show you now: Dulin twice spun 180 degrees to pull in short passes Ryan had thrown behind him, and Michael Strachan similarly spun for what they called a “back-shoulder” pass that was more like a “back-knee” pass, one Strachan had to lean down to catch above his ankles.
Those three poor passes accounted for 45 of Ryan’s 160 yards, the Colts’ young receiving corps elevating Ryan, not vice versa. This is why I was prodding Reich on Wednesday about his veteran quarterback, noting the Colts’ struggles on offense are in part because Ryan hasn’t elevated anybody.
“He’s done some good things,” Reich said. “We all have to get better. He’ll be the one to lead us where we need to go. I’m confident of that.”
Ryan had talked at length about leadership in the preseason, when we kept asking him about it. At one point, asked in July how he kept teammates sharp, he said:
“Keep a foot up their (expletive) when they need it.”
I’m reminding Ryan of that on Wednesday, an exchange that went like so:
How many (expletives) have you stuck your foot up?
“I think that’s taken out of context a little bit,” he said, “if you heard the entire quote.”
I was there.
Ryan nodded and reiterated the context, for those who weren’t there.
“Sometimes,” he was saying Wednesday, “they need a lot of love, too. Sometimes you need to put an arm around them – and sometimes people do need a foot up their (expletive).”
So have you? Is what I’m asking.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“This week?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I tend keep those things private, I’ll continue to do that, but yeah, there’s a level of love you need to get out, and a level of tough love you need to get out.”
Ryan can still talk a good game. Now we need to see him play one.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.