The Colts are 2-2-1 after somehow escaping Denver with an overtime victory last Thursday night.
But there have been some concerning aspects of quarterback Matt Ryan’s play through the first five weeks, particularly with his turnovers.
Ryan has thrown a league-leading seven interceptions and has fumbled 10 times, losing three of them. While it’s not all his fault, he’s also tied for the league lead in taking 21 sacks.
Still, head coach Frank Reich had some particularly positive things to say about the quarterback on Monday.
“My evaluation and my comfort with Matt as our starting quarterback is very high,” Reich said in his press conference. “I know everybody does — obviously, I feel like I have a deeper understanding having played the position for a long time and having coached the position for a long time, understanding all the dynamics that go in to having effective quarterback play. What is the effect of playing behind the sticks and having a run game that has been subpar, and so on and so forth? But at the same time, you’re always pushing and coaching somebody to get better.
“One of the great things about Matt is, like every great player, he’s hard on himself. In his mind, ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter that we’re playing behind the sticks. I have to do better.’ Obviously, the No. 1 thing is the turnovers. We have to get that cleaned up. Some of those are on him, but they aren’t all on him. That’s the biggest thing. I think in other ways you look at certain things in the pass game, he made three or four throws in that last game that were elite. That if you really look at the tight copy and you see a couple throws that he made, they are unreal throws. I think we’re getting these young guys in the passing game, getting more guys involved. It’s not just [Michael] Pittman Jr. anymore. We’re spreading the ball around. I think that could be good for us going forward.”
As Reich noted, the fumbles are a significant issue. The head coach pointed out that he’s given Ryan some coaching tips, but wouldn’t quite go into what they were.
“But obviously when you’re having that issue, at one point, just like you said, it’s the maturity to say, ‘I’ve got 14 years of film that says this is a fluke for him. But wait a second, it’s not a fluke to us because we feel the pain of those so we better get this thing fixed,’” Reich said. “It’s that combination of I’ve got extreme confidence in Matt, that we’re going to get this cleaned up.
“But on the other hand at the same time, I feel like we’ve got to have a sense of urgency. What little things can we do? What little things can we do? I know these aren’t all his fault, but what can we do to clean these up? We’ve talked about those with Matt and he’s making a conscious effort.”
The Colts will take on the Jaguars on Sunday for their second divisional matchup of the season. Ryan threw three picks and took five sacks in the 24-0 loss back in Week Two.
