Thursday night was a miserable one for the Colts offense, but there was one saving grace of their trip to Denver.
They left town with a win. Despite turning the ball over twice, allowing six sacks, and punting seven times, the Colts wound up 12-9 winners in overtime when cornerback Stephon Gilmore knocked away Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson’s final pass in the end zone.
When it was over, head coach Frank Reich said “isn’t it awesome that you can have a game like that and still win” in the NFL and quarterback Matt Ryan shared his focus on the final result. The final two offensive drives of the game ended in field goals and Ryan said they “showed a lot of guts” that will lead to increased confidence in the locker room despite how poorly the rest of the game went for the unit.
“We found a way,” Ryan said, via the team’s website. “And with the young group we have, particularly we had a lot of young players playing tonight, there’s belief that gets created, even though it’s ugly. There’s belief that gets created when you find a way to get the job done. And that’s what we’ve got to do right now. We’ve got to figure out how to get better, there’s no doubt about that, and try to play better, more consistent football. But you gotta win games. You gotta find ways to win games and I’m proud of the guys.”
Ryan’s not wrong about needing to find ways to win games when things aren’t working, but it remains to be seen if they can create enough belief to overcome the shoddy execution that has marked the majority of the first five weeks of their season.