EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Indianapolis Colts are accustomed to facing season-defining games in late December or early January.
To their credit, they've put themselves in a position every team wants to be in: playing meaningful games in the final weeks of a season.
The problem is that the Colts keep winding up with the same disappointing outcome. For the third time in four seasons, the Colts fell short in a game that could have propelled them into the postseason, losing 45-33 on Sunday to the New York Giants. It was a game they needed to win to stay alive for the AFC's final wild-card spot, but -- as has become custom -- they could not finish the job as the season wound down.
Why has this become the norm for the Colts?
"I'm going to be honest, as the entire team, we s--- the bed another year, and it's frustrating," defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. "It's just we're not getting over that hump. I just feel like it's little details that we're missing that's hurting us."
This trend began in 2021 when the Colts needed one win in the final two weeks of the season to reach the playoffs but lost consecutive games to the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars in Weeks 17 and 18. The Jacksonville loss was particularly humiliating, with the Jaguars having won just one game entering the season's final weekend.
The season's conclusion was so stunning that it proved the beginning of the end for then-quarterback Carson Wentz, who was traded away to the Washington Commanders two months later.
It happened again in 2023, with Indianapolis facing a Week 18 matchup with the Houston Texans in which the winner would clinch an AFC South title. But the Colts fell short in that game, too, failing on a late fourth-down while attempting to mount a final scoring drive in a three-point game.
Now, after the Denver Broncos' loss on Saturday kept the Colts alive in the postseason race, the Colts (7-9) failed to hold up their end of the bargain. Indianapolis needed to win its two remaining games and hope for a three- or four-way tie -- a very plausible scenario -- which it was projected to win based on conference record. Instead, the Colts are going home early after losing to a Giants team that had lost 10 straight games.
"I think when you're playing in an elimination scenario, the level of execution, the level of attention to detail, your intensity -- everything -- has to raise a level," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "... It just feels like we just as a team did not raise that level."
Running back Jonathan Taylor, who has been in Indianapolis for each of the late-season letdowns, referenced the Bengals' overtime win over the Broncos on Saturday that kept Cincinnati alive as an example of what the Colts lacked in such critical situations.
"That's the difference between the teams that get in [the playoffs] and the teams that don't," he said. "[In] those do-or-die situations ... you've just got to find a way to make the play. It may not be exactly how you script it, but when it's time, you've got to find a way to make that play."
The Colts made too few plays on Sunday. They allowed a season-high 309 passing yards from the Giants, who hadn't won a game since Oct. 6. And the 45 points scored by the Giants were more than New York's combined output in its previous three games.
The remaining question is what consequences will result from this season's shortcomings? The Colts were 9-8 last season and believed keeping their core together would allow for continued progress. They re-signed a slew of in-house free agents but then watched that core suffer another late-season disappointment. Will that core remain intact after this?
As for the architect of the roster, general manager Chris Ballard, he's finishing up his eighth season, and numerous league insiders wonder what the future holds for him. His teams have yet to win a division title and have managed just one postseason victory -- in 2018, with Andrew Luck at quarterback.
There are also likely to be questions about second-year coach Shane Steichen, who received praise for improving the Colts by five wins from 2022 to 2023, but this season oversaw a team that seemed stagnant. Second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson struggled this season under Steichen, considered a quarterback expert, and the Colts will need to evaluate how they'll move forward with Richardson, too.
"It's one of those things where, like I said, this offseason there's going to be some changes," Buckner said, "and sometimes those changes are going to be uncomfortable for people."