Colts’ Jeff Saturday explains his team’s refusal to use timeouts on the final drive. ‘Felt like we had time’
Coach Jeff Saturday of the Indianapolis Colts took the brunt of the criticism for his play-calling on the team’s final drive of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Colts had all three timeouts but only used one during run plays as they attempted to drive down the field and secure a tie to force overtime or the lead to win the game.
Matt Ryan was sacked on first down after converting on fourth down. He would scramble for 14 yards on the next play, and on third down, the team decided to try another run play to get the first down, but they failed.
After the Jonathan Taylor run, the team took its first timeout. Despite the contact that could have resulted in a penalty, Ryan then threw an incomplete pass to Parris Campbell.
Saturday told reporters that he thought he had enough time.
“I didn’t feel like time was of the essence at the time,” Saturday said after the game, according to the team’s website. “I thought we played well….” We obviously don’t do well on the back end, so it’s even worse.
But I had a good feeling about the call before. We felt like we had plenty of time; we would have taken timeouts afterward. We were within striking distance of each other.
“So, I never felt the pressure of needing a timeout.” As I previously stated, I thought the call was good, and again, we were in that (hurry-up) mode for the majority of the second half, so it was pretty consistent with what we were doing, so it wasn’t a big change for us. We just didn’t do it.”
The Steelers triumphed 24-17.
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Ryan finished the game 22-for-34 for 199 yards and a touchdown pass to Pittman. Taylor led the team in rushing yards with 86. Jelani Woods hauled in eight passes for 98 yards.
Pittsburgh improved to 4-7 on the season after losing three of their previous four games, while Indianapolis fell to 4-7-1.