INDIANAPOLIS – There are a few things that have become pretty routine over the past few years in the NFL.
Aaron Rodgers as an MVP candidate. Tom Brady having a Super Bowl contending team. And the Indianapolis Colts not beating the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road.
The Colts have not beaten the Jaguars in Jacksonville – or London – since 2014.
You read that right.
The Jaguars, the same team that has been to the playoffs only once since 2008, have had the Colts’ number as the home team. Andrew Luck was in only his third year in the NFL and still looking like Indianapolis’ franchise quarterback for the next 10-12 years when the Colts last won there.
This week, the Jaguars have an opportunity to continue being a thorn in Indianapolis’ side -- because they can eliminate the Colts from making the playoffs by beating them in Jacksonville.
The Colts, thanks to the lackluster performance in their 23-20 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, have to beat the Jaguars to lock up a playoff spot for the third time in four years under coach Frank Reich.
“Pressure does two things, bust pipes or make diamonds, plain and simple,” linebacker Darius Leonard. “You’re either going to step up when the pressure comes in the fourth quarter; you’re going to make a play or you’re not. That’s what it comes down to.”
The Colts weren’t expected to be in a must-win situation going into the final week of the regular season -- not after the way they had been playing lately. They had won six of their past seven games and eight of their past 10 heading into their Week 17 tilt with the Raiders.
None of that will matter if the Colts’ season ends with a loss to the Jaguars.
“I mean we feel like there’s been pressure every week,” Colts quarterback Carson Wentz said. “We had a slow start. It has just felt like it’s been playoff football for a long time for us. Obviously, [Sunday] we didn’t get it done, but we are excited for the opportunity to win, get in, and then we have to win this one.”
The Colts find themselves in this position because they sputtered along and never found a rhythm in any of their three areas – special teams, offense or defense – against the Raiders.
“We didn’t come out to play,” receiver T.Y. Hilton said. “You do that against a good team, you’re not going to win. We made it tough on ourselves, and now we’ve got to bounce back. We just didn’t show up. … We were just going through the motions, and they came out with a lot of juice, and we didn’t match that intensity until it was too late.”
NFL-leading rusher Jonathan Taylor rushed for 108 yards, but they weren’t easy yards to come by, as the Raiders made him earn each and every one of them. Sunday was the first time that the Colts lost a game with Taylor rushing for at least 100 yards after winning nine straight.
Wentz, who was out all week leading up to the game because he was on the reserve/COVID-19 list, looked rusty, throwing for just 148 yards. The defense had no answer for Raiders receivers Zay Jones (120 yards) or Hunter Renfrow (76).
“It was a closely contested game,” Reich said. “Really, what it comes down to is making one better call on offense, defense or special teams or making one play on offense, defense or special teams somewhere along the line to put us in position to win that game.”
The pressure is on the Colts, not on the Jaguars this weekend. The only thing Jacksonville (2-14), which is coming off a 40-point loss to the New England Patriots and will be looking for a new coach in the offseason, is the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
“The good news for us as a team is, everything is still in front of us,” Reich said. “Everything we want is still in front of us. It really is. The other good news is, we’re still the same team everybody’s been talking about. We’re like anybody else, if you just lose a little bit of an edge, if you just let your guard down a little bit, you can get beat in this league.”