The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Indianapolis Colts 48-27 on Monday night. With this loss, the Colts are now unable to win the AFC South and must rely on the Houston Texans to lose both of their final games to make the playoffs. Indianapolis struggled on both sides of the ball, stopping the 49ers’ offense only once all night with an interception.
Following the game, multiple Colts defenders reflected on letting Philip Rivers down in the game.
Indianapolis Colts’ Stars Sound Off on Horrendous Loss
After the game, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, safety Cam Bynum, and linebacker Zaire Franklin all spoke to the media. According to Zak Keefer of The Athletic, Buckner didn’t mince words when reflecting on the defense’s performance.
“We let him [Philip Rivers] down,” Buckner said. “He was balling, putting up points. We didn’t show up today. We couldn’t stop a nosebleed. That’s a simple fact.”
Buckner’s comments perfectly captured a night where the Colts’ defense struggled to get off the field. Despite forcing San Francisco into 11 third-down situations, Indianapolis managed just four stops. Even then, two of those stops still resulted in field goals, with the lone true break coming on a missed kick. Simply put, when the defense had opportunities to limit the damage, it failed to capitalize on them.
Bynum echoed that sentiment, pointing to how little more the offense could have done.
“It’s his second week here, and he scored 27 points,” Bynum said. “The offense did everything they needed to do. They didn’t even have that many third downs.”
Franklin was just as blunt in his assessment of the loss. “Today was a shy day,” Franklin said. “Our fans deserved better.”
Statistically, this was an uncharacteristically bad night for a Colts defense that had been mostly solid throughout the season. Indianapolis allowed San Francisco to pile up 440 total yards, including 295 passing yards and 145 on the ground.
While the unit has had its ups and downs, the Jacksonville Jaguars are the only other team to score more than 30 points against them this year. That made Monday night’s collapse even more concerning, especially considering the 49ers have not been a high-powered offense for most of the season.
According to PFSN’s defensive impact metric, the Colts now rank 21st in the NFL with a defensive impact score of 72.1. If the Colts want any chance of making the playoffs, their defense needs to put this game behind them quickly. In Week 17, they once again play the red-hot Jaguars with their playoff hopes on the line.
