After the conclusion of the 2025 season in January, Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon made it clear that General Manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen had to put a better product on the field in 2026.
“We have been very clear with Chris and Shane that giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency for them to deliver and perform has never been higher,” Irsay-Gordon said at her press conference after announcing that Ballard and Steichen would both return.
But with Sunday’s overtime loss to Kansas City, Indianapolis has now lost nine consecutive games dating back to Week 12 of last season. The team finished 8-9 after starting 8-2 and has now dropped the first two this season.
A lot has happened along the way — including starting quarterback Daniel Jones going down with a torn Achilles. But in a results-oriented business, Indianapolis has not been good enough.
At the end of his postgame press conference on Sunday night, Steichen was asked what he tells the team after nine consecutive losses.
“I tell them to keep your freaking heads up, dude,” Steichen said. “It is a long season ahead of us. We are battling like crazy. That’s the message. We have to continue to grow and learn. There is a lot of football left. Like I said last week, we are right there. We have to find a way to win at the end. That was one of those games.
“It is a freaking hard-ass league, and you have got to find a way to win these tight games.”
The Colts will be back at home next weekend to face a division rival, the 0-2 Texans.
The NFL centralized replay review in order to ensure that a consistent standard will apply when a second look is being taken at rulings on the field. And the consistent standard is, or should be, that the available evidence makes it “clear and obvious” that the officials got it wrong in real time.
Sometimes, that standard applies. Sometimes, it doesn’t.
When it comes to the play that gave the Colts a chance to beat the Chiefs in overtime, it didn’t.
It wasn’t clear and obvious that the officials made a mistake when ruling that Colts receiver Laquon Treadwell had caught the ball, landed on a knee/leg without being touched, and fumbled. The key question was whether Treadwell was down by contact. Which required a frame-by-frame review as to whether he had been touched by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed after Treadwell satisfied the multi-step process of making the catch.
It was not clear and obvious that Sneed had touched Treadwell after Treadwell had completed the act of catching the ball. The fact that nearly three minutes passed from the announcement by referee Craig Wrolstad of the ruling on the field and the issuance of the final verdict shows that it was not clear and obvious.
The standard often has been summed up like this — the ruling on the field should be overturned by replay only if 50 drunks in a bar would have agreed that a mistake had been made.
Here’s what is clear and obvious: Whoever made the decision in New York re-officiated the play from scratch, straining to conclude that Sneed was still contacting Treadwell after Treadwell had secured possession of the ball.
The league got lucky that the Colts opted not to attack the end zone after getting an unwarranted reprieve. Ultimately, the league got lucky that the Chiefs won the game. If they had lost, it would have been a much bigger deal.
It should still be a big deal, because it exposes the presence of a flaw in the replay machinery. The standard is “clear and obvious.” It was not “clear and obvious” that the ruling on the field was incorrect. The game should have been over.
And here’s the next-level take. Given the persistent belief in some circles that the league and the officials favor the Chiefs, did the person who made the final decision on replay review (whoever it was) err on the side of making a finding that runs counter to the narrative, if only to avoid a Monday news cycle that would have included more than a few people spouting off the theory that, yet again, the NFL had found a way to help the Chiefs?
Regardless of how it happened and why it happened and who specifically was responsible for it happening, the league in this instance did not honor the standard that is supposed to apply to replay review. The ruling on the field did not amount to a “clear and obvious” mistake. The game should have ended with the ruling that Treadwell had made the catch and fumbled the ball.
The NFL is in its second year of its current overtime format, but some players still haven’t learned the rules. And Chiefs captain Patrick Mahomes tried to take advantage of that on Sunday night.
Colts captain Cam Bynum called tails on the overtime coin toss, and when it came up tails, he had the choice to kick, receive or pick a goal to defend. But Bynum chose none of those, instead saying “defer.”
Deferring is only an option for the pre-game coin toss, when the team that wins the toss can choose to defer its choice of kicking or receiving until the second half kickoff. Deferring is not an option before overtime.
As soon as Mahomes heard Bynum’s mistake, he yelled to referee Craig Wrolstad, “They get the ball!” Mahomes figured that if Bynum was going to defer the Colts’ choice, then the Chiefs would make their choice, which was to kick off and get the ball second in overtime.
Unfortunately for Mahomes, Wrolstad asked Bynum follow-up questions until Bynum understood.
“Would you like the ball? Would you like the ball? Would you like to play defense?” Wrolstad asked Bynum.
Eventually, Bynum said the Colts wanted to start on defense — which is technically not a choice at the start of overtime, but Wrolstad knew Bynum meant the Colts wanted to kick off, and Wrolstad accepted that.
“Indianapolis won the toss, they would like to play defense,” Wrolstad announced to the crowd.
After the game, Mahomes confirmed that he was trying to take advantage of Bynum’s mistake.
“You’re supposed to say kick off. You can’t defer in overtime. If you defer, then it’s my decision. So I was like, then I want to kick off,” Mahomes said. “You’re supposed to say kick off, he said defer, so I said, Well, I’ll kick off then. That’s the rules, I guess, but it didn’t work.”
Mahomes credited Mike Frazier, the Chiefs’ longtime statistical analysis coordinator, for making sure the Chiefs’ players always know exactly what their options are in such situations. Mahomes knew the rule, and Bynum didn’t.
Colts coach Shane Steichen chose to kick in Sunday night’s overtime loss to the Chiefs. Questioned about those decisions after the game, Steichen defended his process even though his team lost the game.
Steichen’s two choices came when the Colts won the coin toss and chose to kick off to start overtime, and then when the Colts settled for a game-tying field goal rather than trying to score a game-winning touchdown at the end of their only overtime possession.
On the choice to kick off after winning the toss, Steichen said he didn’t want to score first because it would be too easy for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to move the ball down the field if the Chiefs knew they were going to go for it on every fourth down.
“If we go first with it, Mahomes gets four downs going the other way, so we wanted to play defense there and know we had four downs,” Steichen said. “It can go either way in those situations, but we decided to kick off there, and we had a chance at the end. Didn’t finish it.”
On the Chiefs’ opening possession, they kicked a field goal. That meant on the Colts’ possession, a touchdown would win the game, while a field goal would tie it and give the ball back to the Chiefs. The Colts marched down the field and faced a fourth-and-8 at the Chiefs’ 15-yard line, and Steichen initially kept his offense on the field, appearing ready to go for the win. But after seeing how the Chiefs’ defense lined up, Steichen told his offense to take a delay of game penalty and settled for a field goal.
“It was fourth-and-8, had a play called, had to love the look to run it there, and if not, we took the delay of game there and kicked the field goal there to tie it,” Steichen said.
That tied the game 30-30, and Mahomes proceeded to move the Chiefs into field goal range, where Harrison Butker’s kick gave Kansas City the 33-30 win. Steichen thinks he made the right choices, even if he doesn’t like the result.
It took nearly every moment of regulation and overtime, but the Chiefs were able to come away with a 33-30 victory over the Colts on Sunday night.
After the two teams traded field goals in overtime, Kansas City got a 40-yard field goal from Harrison Butker to push the club’s record to 2-0 on the young season.
Patrick Mahomes and Kenneth Walker set up Butker’s game-winner with a catch-and-run on third-and-2 from the Indianapolis 46, with Walker making it all the way down to the Indianapolis 24. After another Walker run, Butker sent his kick right through the middle of the uprights for the win.
It was the capper to a good night for Mahomes, who finished 32-of-47 for 382 yards with three touchdowns. He also rushed twice for 17 yards.
Kenneth Walker again helped pace the offense, rushing for 117 yards on 24 carries and catching six passes for 61 yards.
Travis Kelce led with nine receptions for 101 yards with a touchdown. Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals had the other two TDs.
While Indianapolis had tied the game at 30-30, the club nearly lost the game on its overtime possession. Laquon Treadwell beat the coverage deep, juggled the football, and then reeled it in. But not thinking he was touched down as he went to the ground, he got back up and then fumbled when he was hit hard by a Chiefs defender — with Kansas City recovering.
But replay review overturned the play, as Treadwell had been touched down upon securing the ball with his right hand.
However, the Colts’ drive stalled, with the club kicking a 38-yard field goal to again knot the score.
Daniel Jones finished the contest 22-of-31 for 210 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Jonathan Taylor had 92 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns and caught four passes for 40 yards.
Notably, Colts receiver Alec Pierce left the game with an injury to the same heel he had surgically repaired in the offseason. It was reported during the second half that Pierce’s X-rays were negative, but he is slated to undergo more tests on Monday.
Indianapolis cornerback Charvarius Ward also departed the game with a groin injury. Sauce Gardner was shaken up as well during the second half, but was able to come back into the game.
The now 2-0 Chiefs will be on the road next week to face the Dolphins in South Florida. Kansas City has now won eight consecutive regular-season overtime games, which ties the longest all-time streak set by the 49ers from 2003-2010.
The 0-2 Colts will be at home to face the division-rival 0-2 Texans.
