Why didn't Shane Steichen run more vs. Chiefs? 'It starts with myself'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time this season, the Colts went completely silent in the critical moments of Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs, and two weeks after he closed out the Falcons in Berlin, Jonathan Taylor wasn’t given many chances to make noise.

With a lead in hand, Indianapolis ran 12 plays on its final four drives, gained only 18 yards and sputtered completely, allowing an embattled Kansas City team to come roaring back for a season-saving 23-20 win at Arrowhead.

Taylor, the NFL”s leading rusher, had just three carries in those 12 plays.

Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen did not directly explain why he put the ball in the air so much down the stretch, although he did say he felt confident in the team’s game plan against Kansas City’s pass defense. When the Colts moved the ball in the first three quarters, it was often by attacking the Chiefs through the air.

“There was a lot of stuff I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the pass game,” Steichen said. “We just weren’t efficient doing it.”

Colts quarterback Daniel Jones completed 3 of 9 passes for 17 yards on those final four drives, repeatedly stopping the clock with incompletions when a Taylor run would have at least kept the clock moving.

“Any time you have three-and-outs and you’re not moving the ball efficiently, it’s going to be hard for anyone to win football games,” Steichen said. “We’ve got to be better.”

There were a few factors that might have contributed to Steichen changing his typical “throw to score, run to win” philosophy, a strategy that has served the Colts well this season. For most of the year, Taylor has posted fairly pedestrian numbers in the first half, then took over the second half, closing out games for an Indianapolis offense that had been the league’s best.

Taylor didn’t take over Sunday’s game in the second half.

Taylor finished with a respectable 58 yards on 16 carries, and he admittedly started slow, picking up 22 yards on seven carries in the first half.

The numbers in the second half and overtime — 9 carries, 36 yards — look more respectable, like the kind of numbers that could close out a 20-9 lead.

Except that 27 of those yards came on one run, the only time Taylor broke free all day long. Taylor gained only nine yards on his other eight carries after halftime, and on those final four drives, Taylor picked up just one yard on three carries, losing yardage on two of his chances.

“They were very disciplined,” Taylor said of the Kansas City defense.

The Chiefs pack the middle of the field, keeping four defensive linemen and two linebackers near the line of scrimmage, giving up the outside in exchange for making it tough inside.

Indianapolis tried to respond by getting Taylor to the perimeter, but outside of the 27-yard burst, the Colts had little success getting Taylor to the corner, a surprise for the league’s best big-play back.

“We had some ‘backer run-throughs on a few of those,” Steichen said. “We’ve got to go back and look at those and get those cleaned up.”

The Colts also struggled to get themselves in good running situations.

Indianapolis faced second-and-12, second-and-10 and second-and-10 on its three drives in the fourth quarter; Steichen does not typically run in those situations, because a run for little to no gain leaves the Colts in a third-and-long situation.

“Being efficient on first-and-10,” Steichen said. “At times we did that, but we didn’t do it enough in the second half. It wasn’t good enough, and it starts with myself. We’ve got to be better in all phases, run and pass, moving the football.”

The answer, then, is to start every drive by running Taylor on first down.

But Taylor was dropped for a 2-yard loss on first down at the start of the quarter, and it seemed to stick with Steichen.

“There probably could have been some opportunities, but we have to give Daniel time, we’ve got to be in the right spot for Daniel, we’ve got to protect well,” Taylor said. “It’s an accumulation of a lot of things.”

Indianapolis did get the ball to Taylor on one other play, flipping a screen to the running back for seven yards near the end of the quarter, the longest gain of those 12 plays.

Ultimately, though, the Colts chose to put the ball in the hands of Jones down the stretch, rather than riding the running back who torched Atlanta.

“We trust Shane,” Taylor said. “We have to make these plays happen.”

The Colts didn’t make much of anything happen down the stretch on Sunday.

Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why didn't Shane Steichen run more vs. Chiefs? Pass-heavy Colts loss in OT