Doyel: Colts put postseason fate in Gardner Minshew's hands, not on Jonathan Taylor's legs

INDIANAPOLIS – Shane Steichen is trying to explain what went wrong on the play that ended the 2023 Indianapolis Colts’ season, and he’s doing a poor job of it. He’s saying something about “liking the look” that the Houston defense presented on fourth-and-2023, the Colts’ final offensive play of the season, with star running back Jonathan Taylor standing next to him on the sideline.

Or maybe Steichen isn’t trying to explain. Maybe that’s what is really happening here. Chuck Pagano did this to us, once; remember the fake punt against New England in 2015? The rationale behind that fake was so bad, so illogical, Pagano tried to gloss over where the play went wrong, because where it went wrong was between his ears.

That’s where the Colts’ final play of the 2023 season, a season so long that it bled into 2024, went wrong: between Steichen’s ears. And this is a hard thing to say, because unlike Pagano – great guy, just not a great head coach – Steichen has been among the Colts’ biggest weapons this season. How does an offense that played half the season without Taylor, lacks firepower at receiver and tight end, and got exactly one full game from quarterback Anthony Richardson before he went out for the season in Week 5 … how does that offense rank among the NFL’s top 10 in scoring?

Because Steichen’s that good. His system, yes, but also the plays he calls.

Just, not the last call of the 2023 season.

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Houston is advancing to the 2023 NFL postseason after beating the Colts 23-19 on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the building was full and the atmosphere was electric. Tony Kanaan was banging on the anvil and Pat McAfee was hanging in the crowd and Jonathan Taylor was going 49 yards for a touchdown and things couldn’t possibly get crazier.

Until things got crazier. Fourth-and-1 at the Houston 15. One minute and six seconds left. Most important play of the season coming, and it’s coming on a day Taylor is having his finest game in years. Taylor has run for 188 yards on 30 attempts, and he’s carried the ball on the last seven plays. Here comes No. 8.

Only, what is Steichen doing? He’s leaving Taylor on the sideline and putting the season on the arm of Gardner Minshew, and into the hands of his fourth-string running back.

“We saw the look,” Steichen was saying in some form afterward, six different times, describing the look of the Houston defense. Not sure what he was seeing there, but I know what we were seeing:

Fourth-and-1 from the Houston 15 with 66 seconds left. Gardner Minshew dropping back to pass. Fourth-string running back running a pattern.

Jonathan Taylor on the sideline.

Tyler Goodson crying in locker room

Tyler Goodson has been crying. His eyes are red, his nose is running, and now he’s answering a question and calling himself a failure and … oh.

Tyler Goodson is still crying.

More than 30 minutes have passed since the play he says “is going to keep coming back to me, and I’ve got to accept that.”

Goodson is the fourth-string running back I was mentioning earlier, behind Taylor and Zack Moss and even Trey Sermon, who had more than twice as many carries (33) this season as Goodson (13). Goodson touched the ball 19 times all year, adding six receptions to those 13 carries, and he’s the back Steichen was referring to later as “a pass catcher for us coming out of the backfield.”

Goodson is standing in front of his locker, answering every question, calling himself “a failure” and saying he “dropped” the pass from Minshew. He says he’s going to call his parents soon, “because they’re probably the only people who love me right now.” He’s refusing to listen when even the sports writers, those jackals, are trying to make him feel better.

The pass was behind you, one reporter tells Goodson.

“It touched my hands,” he says.

And it was low, someone else reminds Goodson.

“It touched my hands,” he says again.

More: "I felt like a failure," Tyler Goodson says of fateful final play

Afterward, with Goodson’s voice breaking and Minshew heading to the interview room across the hall and reporters scurrying that way, three of us stay with Goodson. We want to thank him for answering our questions, and praise him for the way he answered them.

“Thank you sir,” he tells one.

“Yes sir,” he says when another tells him to hang in there.

“Stay off social media,” I tell him. “Nobody with any sense thinks that play is your fault.”

“Thank you sir,” he says. “But it touched my hands.”

I head toward the Minshew interview, leaving Goodson alone at his locker.

Shane Steichen subbed Tyler Goodson for Jonathan Taylor

You know the play, but because you’re here I’m assuming you’re a sucker for punishment. So let’s review one last time:

Fourth-and-1 at the Houston 15, Colts trailing by six. Taylor has emerged from the locker room, where minutes earlier he had been declared “doubtful to return” with an ankle injury, to take the field for the final drive and carry the ball nine times on 11 snaps. That includes the last seven plays before fourth down.

Steichen calls timeout. I’m thinking he’s giving a breather to Taylor, who’s been huffing and puffing on the field. Nope, Steichen was going over his rolodex of short-yardage plays and deciding a short toss to Tyler Goodson is the one he wants to call. He’d called something similar earlier in the game, third-and-4 at the Houston 14 on the Colts’ first possession, and Goodson had broken open in the right flat, with nothing in front of him but the end zone, but Minshew missed him.

Minshew has had some very good games this season – he went 7-6 as a starter – but he’s had some duds, and this was one. He was 13-for-24 for 141 yards, and I promise you, he wasn’t even as mediocre as those numbers would suggest.

But now Steichen calls something similar to that earlier blown touchdown pass, only to the left. Sure enough, Goodson is open in the flat for the first down, with enough room to get inside the 10, but Minshew’s pass is behind him. Goodson spins 180 degrees back and reaches downward, because the ball is near his waist, and this much is true: The ball did hit both his hands. But this is also true: If that were a baseball play, the error would’ve gone to whoever threw the ball, not the first baseman who couldn’t salvage it.

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Most of the questions in Steichen’s 10-minute news conference revolve around that play, and repeatedly he says he liked the look Houston was giving. Confused, I ask Steichen what he means. Literally, I said “I’m confused” by what he was saying. Did he like the look of the 11 defenders Houston put on the field during the timeout? Is that why he replaced Taylor with Goodson?

“They were in a man-to-man defense,” Steichen said. “Felt good about the call.”

Ah.

Steichen didn’t replace Jonathan Taylor (30 carries for 188 yards; two catches for 8 yards) with Tyler Goodson (zero, and zero) because he liked the look. He replaced Taylor with Goodson because that’s what he was going to do, regardless of the look. Only when Houston lined up in man-to-man did the Colts dial up the swing pass to Goodson.

Taylor was out of the game either way.

In the Colts locker room, they were defending Steichen and loving Goodson.

“Not his fault,” defensive tackle DeForest Buckner was telling me when I said Goodson was still in tears. “The defense could’ve played better. What did we give up, second-and-20 on that final drive? That’s ridiculous.”

Buckner’s voice is rising, because he’s mad at the defense, at himself, at anyone who would blame the fourth-string running back for this loss.

“We love him,” he said of Goodson.

As for Steichen, the player who could’ve been maddest at him for the final play – Jonathan Taylor – wasn’t having it.

“No one’s second-guessed any of Shane’s calls all year,” Taylor said. “He’s been a mastermind all year. We’ve just gotta execute.”

Eventually the interviews are over and the running backs are huddling. Goodson is sitting at his locker, facing Taylor, who is talking quietly and nodding his head. I can’t hear what he’s saying – not my business – but I can see the smile working its way onto Goodson’s face, the only decent ending to a day that went terribly wrong.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts miss playoffs after spurning Jonathan Taylor for Gardner Minshew