Colts know they're in playoff mix, but Shane Steichen wants them focused on task at hand

INDIANAPOLIS — Colts coach Shane Steichen spent the Sunday of the bye week like a lot of the country.

Flipping channels from game to game, seated in front of a television and checking into every NFL game being played.

One takeaway kept rising to the surface for the Indianapolis head coach.

“How much parity there is in this league,” Steichen said. “Obviously, the AFC, there’s a lot of teams right there in the middle. There’s a few that have got a couple more wins than others, but there’s a lot of parity. To be in the race with seven games left is huge for our football team.”

The Colts emerge from the bye week at 5-5, slotted into the ninth spot in the AFC, two spots outside a playoff berth. Two other teams, Denver and Cincinnati, also sit at 5-5. Buffalo’s a half-game ahead of that group at 6-5, one spot outside a playoff berth.

Houston and Pittsburgh sit in the last two playoff spots at 6-4, a game ahead of Indianapolis; the Colts have games against both teams remaining on the schedule.

An Indianapolis team few expected to push its way into the playoff mix — and even fewer expected to stay in the mix after season-ending shoulder surgery for rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson — has a legitimate chance.

The seven teams left on the Colts’ schedule — Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Houston — have a combined record of 33-38, and a few of those teams, most notably the Bengals after losing quarterback Joe Burrow for the season, are facing significant injuries suffered while Indianapolis was on the bye.

“At the beginning of the season, a lot of people were counting the Colts out,” veteran wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie said. “’The Colts have a young team, and they’re going to do a couple good things but not try to make a playoff run. … But at the same time, we’re 5-5, and a lot of teams around the league are either 5-5 or one win away.”

McKenzie spent the past five seasons in Buffalo.

After a transitional season in 2018, the Bills made the playoffs four straight years, making McKenzie an experienced hand at playoff races. When he watched games and saw scores roll into his phone over the weekend, McKenzie was keeping track of every playoff implication, something he’s always loved to do.

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McKenzie has been in enough of these races to know the stakes are starting to rise.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on the team,” McKenzie said. “They don’t understand that one loss, one win could really change the whole scenario, the playoff picture.”

McKenzie’s right about the young players.

There are now tons of numbers that try to predict which teams will make the playoffs -- the New York Times has the Colts at 19% -- numbers that predict the relative strength of every team and change weekly, numbers that dissect the strength of schedule remaining.

All of that’s a lot to consider.

“Not trying to get too far ahead,” defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo said. “You start looking at the percentages. … It’s kind of confusing, too, and it changes every week, so I kind of don’t pay attention to the playoff standings until the last couple of weeks.”

In a way, that’s what Steichen wants from his team.

After the Colts knocked off the Patriots in Germany, Steichen told reporters he kept an eye on the playoff standings, but the games don’t start feeling like a playoff atmosphere until the last few weeks of the season.

With that in mind, Steichen wants Indianapolis focused on the task at hand. The Colts have now won two straight, but those two wins were over Carolina and New England, two of the three worst teams in the NFL by record.

And just because the remaining Indianapolis schedule is relatively easy — the Colts have no games against any of the nine teams that have seven wins or more — doesn’t mean it’s full of pushovers, either.

“The biggest thing for us: Control what we can control,” Steichen said. “That’s what I told the team. Let’s be 1-0 each week, and not think about the future. Let’s focus on Tampa Bay, and we’ll worry about the next one when it comes.”

Especially now that the bye week is over.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts are in playoff mix, but Shane Steichen wants them focused