Shane Steichen’s Colts are stuck in the same brutal loop.
Sunday’s 33-30 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs pushed Indianapolis to nine straight defeats dating back to last season, and the skid has now stretched to 316 days since the Colts last won a game. Six of those nine losses have come by one score, which only sharpens the frustration around a team that came into the year preaching that it would “find a way.”
That was the message owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon used when she decided to bring back the same braintrust from last season. The idea was simple: battle through adversity, steal a few tight ones, and turn the page on the issues that haunted them a year ago. Instead, through two games in 2026, the Colts have found a way to keep losing.
The loss to Kansas City looked a lot like the larger story of Steichen’s time in Indianapolis. The offense did its job.
Even without wide receiver Alec Pierce, the Colts moved the ball and scored enough to win against one of the league’s sharpest defensive minds. But once the game tightened, the combination of shaky defense and questionable late-game management took over again.
That’s what makes the decision-making so hard to ignore. Steichen knows where this team lives and dies.
Since he arrived, the offense has been the strength and the defense has been the obvious problem. And yet he keeps leaning on the unit that has not shown it can close games.
There was a similar feel to the Seattle Seahawks game last season. With Philip Rivers at quarterback, the Colts were hanging around on the road against the eventual Super Bowl champions and reached a 4th-and-3 at the Seahawks’ 42-yard line with 52 seconds left.
Steichen chose the conservative route and sent out Blake Grupe for a field goal attempt in the rain. It went through, but Seattle marched right back down the field in 50 seconds and won it with a field goal of its own.
In that moment, Steichen trusted a kick that had never been made in franchise history and trusted a defense built around Johnathan Edwards and Mekhi Blackmon at cornerback. What he did not trust was his offense to get three yards and end the game.
The same question came back on Sunday night, only louder. With 40 seconds left and the defense struggling all night, Indianapolis faced a 4th-and-4 from midfield.
The Chiefs still had three timeouts. Converting there would have put the Colts in position to control the finish.
Instead, Steichen punted and handed the ball back to one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
The Colts were fortunate Andy Reid didn’t answer with something more aggressive after the punt, because that decision pushed the game to overtime. Once there, Indianapolis got a big shot play to Laquon Treadwell and reached 1st-and-10 inside the red zone.
A touchdown would have ended it. But after two puzzling runs to open the series and a Jones scramble on third down, the Colts were staring at 4th-and-8 with everything on the line.
Normally, the conservative move would be to take the tie and keep playing. But this wasn’t a normal spot. Kicking there was basically surrender, because the defense was not going to hold up against Pat O’Neal Riley, much less Pat Mahomes.
Sure enough, the finish played out the way it felt like it would. Mahomes and running back Kenneth Walker III moved the Chiefs down the field and set up the game-winning field goal as time expired. Going for it on fourth down would have been risky, but it also would have given Indianapolis its best chance.
That’s the central tension with Steichen. He has proven he can coach offense and get more out of the talent he’s given.
But when the game is on the line, he keeps putting his faith in the wrong places. He trusts the defense to make a stop it has not made, and he trusts the kickers to hit a kick that changes the franchise’s history.
What he won’t seem to trust is his offense to go get the final yards itself.
And that habit is becoming one of the biggest reasons his Colts keep ending up on the wrong side of these games.
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NBCs Sunday Night Football buildup ahead of the Chiefs-Colts matchup had little to do with what Indianapolis had done to earn the spotlight and a lot to do with the leagues biggest pop-culture crossover. Comedian Nikki Glaser fronted a promotional video that leaned into Travis Kelces marriage to Taylor Swift and the noise surrounding Kansas Citys recent run, turning the pregame tease into something closer to a national talking point than a simple game preview.
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According to the case, investor funds were misused for personal expenses and fraudulent payments, and Kelce was identified as one of the victims whose money was caught up in the scheme. For Indianapolis, it is another reminder that the Chiefs-Cults storyline often stretches well beyond the field, with major names and unexpected off-field developments following Kansas City wherever it goes. [Read more 🡒]