Opinion: Colts' choke reveals Carson Wentz isn't a good enough QB to trust
The season didn’t end with sod on Carson Wentz’s helmet, not at that exact moment, but that’s where it started to slip irrevocably away. Years from now, when we’re discussing the worst day in Indianapolis Colts history – this 26-11 loss Sunday to the lousy Jacksonville Jaguars, an unfathomable choke that knocked the Colts from the 2021 NFL playoffs – let’s start with Wentz lying face down in the muddy grass at TIAA Bank Field, hands over his ears to block out the roar of the crowd, sod stuck to his facemask.
He’s looking around, for what I couldn’t tell you, but he’s lying there in the third quarter as the Jaguars are celebrating another of his absurd fumbles. In a few minutes Jacksonville is going to turn his turnover into points, and a few minutes after that Wentz is going to throw an interception that defies description – I won’t even try, other than to say this: ugh – and pretty soon the Jaguars are winning 26-3 and this game is over and this season is over and you wonder what else just ended.
Is coach Frank Reich in trouble? You hope not. Well, I hope not. No sir, I cannot explain why his team, needing to win just one of its final two games to clinch a spot in the playoffs, looked unprepared in both. No ma’am, I cannot tell you why Reich decided to get cute to start this game, after it was blunt-force trauma that sparked the offense during a 6-1 midseason stretch that turned the season around. Reich threw the ball on the first two plays Sunday, and three of the first four of a failed first drive, then called three consecutive passes to start (and end) a drive later in the half when this game still seemed winnable.
Is Reich coming back? Is general manager Chris Ballard? He put this team together, trusting Reich with the most important decision of the offseason – selecting Carson Wentz as the heir apparent to Manning and Luck (and Rivers), and taking on the failed Philadelphia Eagle and his four-year, $128 million contract – and filling the two biggest gaps with a bad left tackle (Eric Fisher, who gave up two sacks Sunday) and an underperforming first-round draft pick (defensive end Kwity Paye, who had four sacks all season).
Is Wentz coming back?
Is that even a question?
Those are details to be worked out later, and not right now. The game’s too fresh, the mistakes by the Colts too vulgar, to turn the page already. No, let’s take a good, hard look at the final chapter of this 2021 season.
Carson Wentz isn't good enough
Hang on. This is important. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part – you know how I feel about Carson Wentz, and if you don’t, try Google – but Frank Reich didn’t seem enamored with Carson Wentz after the game, and Wentz didn’t exactly have Reich’s back, either. Look, if I’m misreading what they said about each other, so be it.
Here’s an idea: I’ll show you what each one said. I’ll tell you what I think it means. But you decide.
Let’s go chronologically. Reich speaks to the media first, sitting down and looking around and opening his remarks like this:
“Never expected to be sitting here, having this moment right now,” he said. “Not like this.”
Almost immediately he’s asked about Wentz, and he won’t touch it. We all know Wentz isn’t the strongest dude, mentally, and Reich doesn’t want to crush him now with the truth. The numbers are bad enough: Wentz was 17-for-29 for 185 yards, one touchdown and one interception for a 74.6 passer rating that would rank last in the NFL over the course of a season. And the numbers lie, because Wentz was much worse than that for most of the game. He was 6-for-13 for 70 yards approaching the fourth quarter, saving his final stat line with a long drive in garbage time when the score was 26-3.
Same thing happened last week, by the way. After missing the week of practice with COVID, Wentz was horrible except for a two-minute drive to end the half against a soft Raiders prevent defense.
Anyway, no, Reich wasn’t touching that question.
“I’m not going to evaluate any one performance individually until I watch the film,” he said.
Later, asked a more direct question – Did Carson do enough to be brought back? – Reich answered like so:
“I think Carson did a lot,” he said. “We’re a team. He’s our quarterback. I think there were a lot of bright moments for him. There were a lot of bright spots on this team in general.”
Did you hear “yes” in there? Me neither.
Wentz comes into the room later, and eventually he’s asked if he thinks the Colts have “the system” to win a Super Bowl.
“It’s a great question,” he said. “Still kind of hard to think forward like that. Lot of reflection…”
Wentz kept going.
“I have the utmost confidence in this organization, the players, the way it’s built, the way it’s wired,” he said. “It’s a great group but it’s hard to think forward like that.”
Again, maybe it’s me. I heard a lot from Wentz about the roster, and even the front office. Didn’t hear much – didn’t hear anything – about the coaching staff.
Then again, Wentz is excellent at speaking for a while without saying anything of merit. Who knows what he’s thinking, really? I’ve had better conversations with mannequins at Macy’s, and I’ll tell you this: Those plastic people don’t repeatedly respond to a pass rush by trying to shovel the ball away for an incompletion, as Wentz did again Sunday, failing to get it out and losing the fumble.
“I’ve got to protect the ball,” Wentz said. “I’ve got to do a better job.”
Hey, he can speak the truth.
Seven Pro Bowlers, and most failed
The Colts have seven Pro Bowl players. That’s what it says here, anyway, but I didn’t see seven on Sunday. Didn’t see six. Not five, not four…
Biggest game of the season, and their best players came up small. Darius Leonard had more personal-foul penalties (one) than turnovers forced (zero). Cornerback Kenny Moore was beaten in coverage more than I’ve seen all season. Left guard Quenton Nelson and center Ryan Kelly were part of an offensive line that allowed six sacks and couldn’t get NFL rushing leader Jonathan Taylor going. DeForest Buckner, who didn’t practice all week with a knee injury, played and had three tackles of little consequence.
Taylor looked solid, actually, turning nothing into something a handful of times, finishing with 77 yards on 15 carries (5.1 yards per carry). He also recovered Nyheim Hines’ fumble to save a second-quarter drive that produced the field goal that stood alone as the Colts’ only points until that late garbage-time drive. And long snapper Luke Rhodes’ hair looked great. So that’s two Pro Bowlers doing what they do best.
The rest? Nothing. The group wasn’t helped by Reich’s play-calling or ability to get the team ready, or by defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ pass coverage schemes that allowed Jaguars rookie Trevor Lawrence to complete his first 12 passes – his 13th was dropped by a receiver 35 yards downfield – en route to a 19-for-23, 208-yard first half. In fairness to Eberflus, his secondary was hampered by an injury to Rock Ya-Sin on the fourth play of the game.
In fairness to the truth, it wasn’t going to matter. The Colts weren’t ready, and never got ready.
“It couldn’t start any worse for us,” Reich was saying afterward, “(and as) we tried to dig out of a hole, we never got into any rhythm.”
The whole season couldn’t have started worse, with losses in their first three games. Couldn’t have ended worse, either, with losses at home to Las Vegas and on the road via blowout to an atrocious Jacksonville team. Now we wait for the hammer to fall, though we could be waiting a while. Colts owner Jim Irsay believes in loyalty and continuity, and when it comes to Reich and Ballard, I’m not saying he’d be wrong. Firing either would be a kneejerk reaction to the worst loss in Colts history, but not necessarily the right move for 2022.
This being a quarterback-driven league, and the Colts not having a reliable quarterback, I can think of one hammer that needs to fall. And if No. 2 needs a ride to the airport, the offer remains.