The Colts had the Chiefs on the ropes Sunday night, but Indianapolis walked away from overtime empty-handed after a 33-30 loss that came with two calls Shane Steichen had to explain afterward.
The first was the coin toss. Indianapolis won it, then chose to let Kansas City start with the ball. Steichen said the thinking was simple: if the Colts kicked off, their offense would get four downs of its own possession instead of having to chase Patrick Mahomes on the other side.
“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, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “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.”
The other decision came when the Colts settled for a field goal to tie rather than taking a shot on fourth down. Steichen said the play was there in the call sheet, but the look he wanted never showed up.
“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.”
In Jacksonville, Travis Hunter’s role in Week 2 was tilted heavily toward defense. Against Denver, the Jaguars’ rookie CB/WR played 60 percent of the defensive snaps and logged only six offensive plays. Hunter said he’s fully on board with whatever the coaches ask of him.
“That’s the plan. Coaches tell me what I’ve got to do, I just follow their plan, follow their lead,” Hunter said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
“My job is to go out there and play, no matter when they put me out there. That’s what I’ve got to do.”
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