Shane Steichen didn’t flinch after the Colts’ overtime loss to the Chiefs. He stood by both of the calls that shaped Sunday night’s finish, even though Kansas City walked away with the 33-30 win.
The Colts coach made the first big decision right after winning the coin toss in overtime: he chose to kick off. That meant putting the pressure on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs instead of giving Indianapolis the ball first.
“If we go first with it, Mahomes gets four downs going the other way, so we wanted to play defense there and know we had four downs,” Steichen said. “It can go either way in those situations, but we decided to kick off there, and we had a chance at the end. Didn’t finish it.”
Kansas City answered with a field goal on its opening possession, which set up the Colts with a simple equation: score a touchdown to win, or settle for a field goal and send the ball back to the Chiefs. Indianapolis moved the ball into scoring range and reached a fourth-and-8 at the Chiefs’ 15-yard line.
At that point, Steichen initially kept the offense on the field and looked ready to chase the win. But after seeing the Chiefs’ defensive alignment, he backed off the gamble and told the Colts to take a delay of game penalty before kicking the tying field goal.
“It was fourth-and-8, had a play called, had to love the look to run it there, and if not, we took the delay of game there and kicked the field goal there to tie it,” Steichen said.
The Colts made it 30-30, but the stop they needed never came. Mahomes led Kansas City into range, and Harrison Butker finished the job with the winning kick.
Steichen said he believed both decisions were the right ones, even if the result left Indianapolis empty-handed.
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