Subscribe
Follow Us
The Indianapolis Colts made waves when they hired former Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday as their new head coach in an attempt to, perhaps, start a new era of winning that has eluded the franchise since Andrew Luck's retirement. For his part, Saturday took on the challenge with his head held high despite it being his first coaching gig apart from a short stint as a high school head coach in Georgia.
However, Saturday's glaring inexperience may have reared its ugly head during the Colts' 24-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
In the dying embers of the game, with Matt Ryan and the Colts desperately pushing for an opportunity to tie or perhaps even take the game entirely, Jeff Saturday refused to use two of his final three timeouts. Consequently, Indianapolis ended up falling short as the clock dwindled with the Colts in disarray, as they were stopped short by the Steelers' defense at Pittsburgh's 26-yard line on downs.
When asked about his decision to let the clock run out, Saturday had a response that's sure to perplex.
“I thought we had plenty of time, I wasn’t really concerned. We still had timeouts. I wasn’t too concerned,” Saturday said, per NBC Sports. “I didn’t feel like time was of the essence at that moment. I thought we had a good play, I felt like we would get to it. I felt good about the call before, I felt like we’d have time, we would have timeouts afterwards. We were in striking distance, so I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout.”
Time was, indeed, of the essence, although all the Colts could do now is rue the missed chance they had to claim a much-needed victory. Nevertheless, this should be one memorable learning experience for Jeff Saturday to maximize all the tools he has in his disposal to influence his team in a positive manner.
