Colts’ defense accepts accountability in Monday night loss to 49ers: ‘We got dominated today’

The Colts didn’t allow a touchdown eight days ago against the Seattle Seahawks – who are third in the NFL in points per game – and walked into Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday night allowing 3.7 yards per rush, the second-lowest average in the NFL.

The last time this defense allowed a team to score 40 or more points at Lucas Oil Stadium was amid pandemic restrictions in 2020. The last time they allowed a running back to average at least 5.0 yards per carry on 20 or more carries was the 2024 season opener.

On Monday, with their season all but on the line and in front of a national prime time audience, the Colts’ defense allowed five touchdowns and 41 points, with running back Christian McCaffrey churning out 117 yards on 24 carries – good for an average of 5.6 yards per attempt.

“We couldn’t stop a nosebleed today,” defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said.

While Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers have been a model of offensive efficiency and explosiveness for the better part of the last decade, nothing about what the Colts had done over the last few weeks – even without cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward Sr. – suggested something like this was coming. The Colts hadn’t allowed more than 28 points in a home game this season, after all.

And yet, the 49ers moved the ball at will, scoring touchdowns on each of their first three possessions, with the second of those aided by a short field following a fumble on a kickoff return by running back Ameer Abdullah.

“It felt like we couldn’t get our rhythm started on defense, and we have to take ownership as leaders that we didn’t really get any momentum for our team,” safety Cam Bynum said. “It felt like we weren’t in third down a lot, so we didn’t force a lot of third downs, so we kind of made the game super easy on them and they executed super well — spreading the ball around, getting the ball to their playmakers and doing just enough to keep us on our heels the whole game.”

The 49ers gained 440 yards of total offense; it was the fourth time the Colts had given up at least 440 yards of offense this season, but in those previous three games (at Rams, at Chargers, at Chiefs), the Colts’ defense came up with enough plays to limit those opponents to 27, 24 and 23 points.

“We’ve got to be better. That starts with me,” head coach Shane Steichen said. “Got to be better. Bottom line, we can’t give up that many yards. They scored a lot of points, went up and down the field. We’ve got to get that cleaned up in a hurry. Our defense played great last week, and then this week – we’ve got to be better. It starts with me, bottom line.”

Excluding an end-of-game kneel down, San Francisco converted seven of 10 third downs, and one of those three non-conversions turned into a first down on a fourth down sneak by quarterback Brock Purdy. But third down wasn’t the Colts’ biggest issue: Only two of San Francisco’s 10 actual third down plays came in their own territory, and both of those came on the 49ers’ first two third down plays of the game (in the second quarter, from their own 43- and 21-yard lines).

San Francisco gained 20 first downs on first and second down plays, and averaged 6.7 yards per play on those snaps. Purdy threw for five touchdowns, becoming the first quarterback to throw for five scores against the Colts since ex-Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had six on Oct. 26, 2014.

“We got dominated today,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “It’s really nothing else to talk about. Credit to San Fran. I feel like they came in and they did what they wanted.”

Adding to the Colts’ defensive frustration Monday was that Philip Rivers and the team’s offense put up 27 points, their highest-scoring day since Week 10’s win over the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin. Rivers, at the age of 44 and in his second game back after five years of retirement, threw for 277 yards with two touchdowns.

“I feel bad because we let him down,” Buckner said. “… He’s balling, putting up points and it’s our job to make sure the other team doesn’t score. And we didn’t show up today.”

The Colts, as of Monday night, are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. But they’ll need the Houston Texans to lose to the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night for their Week 17 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday to mean something from a playoff perspective; if the Texans win, the Colts will kick off against the Jaguars eliminated from the postseason.

That Texans-Chargers game is out of the Colts’ control (as are several results that would still need to break the Colts’ way to flip a head-to-head tiebreaker against the Texans in their control, even with wins in Weeks 17 and 18). What is in their control is finding answers on defense – and finding them fast.

Those answers will need to be found in the six days separating Week 16 from Week 17. But in the immediate aftermath on Monday night, the only thing the Colts’ defense could do was accept what they did – and didn’t – do against the 49ers.

“Credit to them,” Franklin said. “They were physical. McCaffrey’s a great player and Purdy was putting the ball where it needed to be in the right spots. I think they just played better than us today. And on the biggest stage, we came up short.”