At halftime of Saturday’s Colts-Vikings game, interim Indy coach Jeff Saturday seemed destined to get the permanent job after the 2022 season ends. Now, it’s far less clear. To say the least.
Saturday, one game after his team allowed 33 points in the fourth quarter to the Cowboys, saw the Colts blow a 33-0 lead after two quarters. The Vikings ultimately tied the game at 36, and then won in overtime, 39-36.
Owner Jim Irsay ultimately will do whatever he wants to do. Even though the Colts have lost four in a row, Saturday has done enough to allow Irsay to plausibly glass-half-full a decision to give Saturday the job.
But even Irsay has to wonder about this one.
Saturday had a chance to put the Colts up by 11 with 2:31 to play. He opted to go for it on fourth and one from the Minnesota 36, in lieu of attempting a field goal that would have been 53 or 54 yards.
“I felt really good about the call,” Saturday said after the game, via Stephen Holder of ESPN.com. “We’ve converted a bunch this season, and I felt like we had the matchup we wanted.”
The matchup was irrelevant; the Colts ran a quarterback sneak with a rickety, skinny, 37-yard-old signal-caller.
On the next play, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook took a short pass 64 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion tied the game. And, eventually, the Colts blew the biggest lead in the 100-plus-year history of the NFL.
Whatever Saturday may have on his permanent record, that one isn’t coming off -- until someone blows a lead of 34 0r more points. And that could make it very hard for Irsay to make Saturday the permanent coach.
