Indianapolis Colts Media Conference

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Coach Shane Steichen

Postgame Press Conference


Los Angeles 29, Indianapolis 23

SHANE STEICHEN: I want to start off by injuries. Dallis Flowers has an ankle right now, and that's it on the injury report.

As far as the game, I thought our guys fought their tails off. To be down 23 points, we never want to put ourselves in that hole and have to fight back. The way they fought and scratched and clawed to come back to tie that game up and have a chance to win in regulation, it just showed signs of the toughness and the resilience of our football team.

Again, it's not the result we want, and we've got to finish games. It always starts with myself. I have to look at myself in the mirror and be better. Obviously we have to be better in the first half so we don't put ourselves in that position.

Q. Can you take us through the last play?

SHANE STEICHEN: I have to go back and look at the tape. There's a coverage deal right there that we have to get cleaned up, and obviously he was open for the touchdown.

Q. When a guy (indiscernible) numerous times throughout the day, I know you haven't seen the tape yet, but are there adjustments that you can make or should have made or could have made against them?

SHANE STEICHEN: There's always things, right? You go back and look at the tape, and you learn from it. Credit to Matt Stafford and the Rams. He is an elite quarterback in this league. He is super accurate. He makes all the throws. He makes a ton of throws that were contested that were right where they needed to be. So credit to those guys on the other side making plays.

Q. It looks like this is kind of who Anthony is, a work in progress, some rolls, and then he gets hot and it's just electric. And then you have the bad drive at the end of regulation. Is that sort of where he is right now?

SHANE STEICHEN: I think obviously with any young player, you're learning things, and are you seeing new looks and different things, but once he gets rolling, he gets rolling. You know, we have to start faster offensively. Again, that starts with myself. I have to do a better job with him to get it going earlier. We go from there, and we learn from the tape and get better.

Q. What was the challenge with the offensive line that you had? Obviously you were throwing a little on your left tackle. What was that challenge like?

SHANE STEICHEN: No doubt. Obviously Donald is a huge impact player for them. Third downs, he was always kind of seeing where he was lined up during the game, whether he was inside of the three technique, and the third downs he would jump outside to the defensive end. He jumped in third downs, and you are trying to get the protection to where he is.

Sometimes it doesn't always work out exactly the way you want it, so obviously we've got to be better. Obviously seeing those things we're obviously watching them, but trying to get it in to him to where he is on the field to get our back to help shifts or whatever it may be.

Q. Why do you think you guys kind of started out slow on the offense? What do you feel like got it going in the second half?

SHANE STEICHEN: You know what, we just need to make a big play. Obviously we were going there pretty good on that second drive, and then they got the turnover. We fumbled there. So who knows what could have happened there.

We just weren't clicking. I have to do a better job of putting our guys in position in the first half to make those plays, and then obviously the defense -- we all kind of stepped up as a team in the second half. We got it turned around, but obviously we can't start like that as a football team.

Q. What was the conversation at halftime?

SHANE STEICHEN: It was, hey, we have 30 more minutes. Let's go fight. Shoot, you know what, let's find out what we're about, and let's go see where we're at as a football team and go ahead and play.

Shoot, we have the ball on offense. We didn't do anything with it to start the third quarter, and the defense gets the stop, and the momentum switches, and we start making some plays, and the guys showed up in the second half, which I was excited to see that fight from our team. But, again, we have to finish the game.

Q. (Indiscernible) dialed in before (indiscernible) after he had the fumble, and he had the performance to get you all back in the game.

SHANE STEICHEN: No doubt. He came back from that turnover, obviously, and he made some huge plays in the second half. Obviously some scramble plays. Two-point conversions, the touchdown runs he had down there were huge to get us back in it.

Obviously we just have to find a way to finish. Kind of like we did last week against Baltimore, same type of situation. We have to finish there at the end.

Q. You had three tight ends make big plays, whether it was Mo with the 35-yard touchdown, Kylen getting that fourth down play, and Drew getting those back-to-back 20-plus-yard gains and that touchdown. What did you see from that group today overall?

SHANE STEICHEN: Shoot, they were solid. They made the plays that we needed. Granson on fourth down was big, and then Mo down the seam -- or Granson down the seam was big, and Mo on the scramble play. It worked out great. Then running the guy over. They fought and they scratched and clawed and made plays for us today.

Q. Anthony's escapability, maybe he didn't get the protection totally right. How big is that?

SHANE STEICHEN: It's huge. You saw some of the big plays he made out of the pocket to get some yardage there. It was huge. Then early on we had some designed runs for him where he got some big runs as well. But obviously it is definitely an asset when a guy can do that.

Q. Was Shaq dealing with an injury at all? At one point it was Segun and E.J. Speed in there.

SHANE STEICHEN: We're just rotating them in there. That's the rotation.

Q. How happy were you to see Drew get that first touchdown after everything he has been through with the injuries?

SHANE STEICHEN: That was awesome. Obviously anytime a guy goes through stuff like that to get a touchdown is awesome. It was exciting for him and exciting for the football team as where.

Q. Was (indiscernible) on a pitch count?

SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, he was.

Q. (Indiscernible) conversion, how much of that is by design or --

SHANE STEICHEN: That's exactly where we thought (indiscernible) and he made the play. They passed it off, and he scrambled and threw it to Zack.

Q. When you are in those moments, that sort of risk (indiscernible) with Anthony's ability to run or just throw it?

SHANE STEICHEN: Obviously it helps us. Obviously the defense, they have to defend a running quarterback, and obviously a drop-back passer. It definitely helps us as an offense.

Q. Was Blake Freeland -- most of what we saw from him in training camp was on the right side. Since you have been in season, has he been playing more?

SHANE STEICHEN: He is doing both. He is doing both.

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137232-1-1222 2023-10-01 22:40:00 GMT

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