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Las Vegas Raiders running back Zamir White (35) carries against the Indianapolis Colts during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Indianapolis.
Published Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023 | 1:03 p.m.
Updated 4 hours, 39 minutes ago
The Colts’ offense grounded the Raiders’ defensive renaissance Sunday in Indianapolis. The Raiders’ attempted offensive revival didn’t take off until it was too late.
Put both factors together and Las Vegas’ playoff hopes, which earned some positive momentum with an upset win over Kansas City last week, went up in flames with a 23-20 Week 17 loss to Indianapolis.
“Guys are disappointed,” interim coach Antonio Pierce said in his postgame news conference. “Why wouldn’t they be? You want to win every game. We had a great opportunity there. We were right there at the very end.”
Las Vegas might have given itself a late shot at the miracle, but Indianapolis led throughout — and often comfortably. Similarly, the scoreboard may not have fully illustrated it, but the Colts soared up and down the field with relative ease.
The Raiders surrendered a season-high 6.6 yards per play with the Colts piecing together several explosive plays and gashing the Lucas Oil Stadium visitors on the ground to keep the clock ticking.
Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor had his fourth career big game against Las Vegas in four tries, rushing for 96 yards on 21 carries. Taylor set the tone early when he ran in a five-yard touchdown less than three minutes after kickoff to cap a 6-play, 75-yard scoring drive.
“We didn’t have the execution we needed early on,” Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell said. “It’s hard to overcome those things in the NFL. We needed a faster start…I’d definitely start with myself on that one.”
O’Connell played better than in the victory against the Chiefs, when he didn’t complete a single pass outside of one first-quarter drive, but still managed a relatively pedestrian 299 yards on 30-for-47 passing.
Those numbers were greatly inflated by a drive at the end of the game where the Colts were playing soft coverage up two scores. To O’Connell’s credit, he did finish the job on the possession with a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass from the 1-yard line to top receiver Davante Adams, who trapped the ball against his shoulder pad in the corner of the end zone.
“I thought today, at the end of the game, that two-minute drill, he looked pretty sharp,” Pierce said of O’Connell. “He was rolling. He doesn’t really blink. He got hit early and often today. I thought he did a decent job as the game went on keeping his eyes up instead of down looking at the rush.”
The biggest play in Las Vegas’ only other touchdown drive, in the third quarter, was a roughing the kicker penalty for 15 yards by the Colts that negated a turnover on downs. Adams helped cash in on the second chance with a four-yard touchdown pass to finish off a 15-play, 65-yard drive to make the score 14-10.
The Raiders held the Colts out of the end zone the next two times they played defense but couldn’t prevent long drives that resulted in a pair of field goals by kicker Matt Gay.
Daniel Carlson answered with a 33-yarder of his own to make the score 20-13 with 4:15 to go, and the Raiders seemed to get new life when Gay missed a 50-yarder a minute later.
But a penalty flag nullified the miss and gave Gay another shot from 45 yards, which he converted on. The officials flagged cornerback Jack Jones for offsides on the missed attempt.
Some camera angles made it look like a bad call, though Pierce declined to comment afterwards — perhaps saving himself from a potential fine for criticizing officials.
“They called it; it went against us,” Pierce said. “Obviously, something happened.”
Jones had his first poor game as a Raider as he was also called for a pass-interference penalty to give the Colts a crucial third-down conversion earlier in the fourth quarter. The newcomer had been one of the best cornerbacks in the league so far in December but took a step back against the Colts.
The Raiders came into the game as the least-penalized team in the league with 4.25 flags incurred per game, but drew seven calls against them on Sunday. That was Pierce’s biggest lament.
“It’s just a focus thing — false starts, offsides,” Pierce said. “That’s the Raiders beating the Raiders.”
Jones was far from the Raider defense’s only problem, as coverage breakdowns and line-of-scrimmage struggles struck consistently. Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew had an efficient day, throwing for 224 yards and a touchdown while completing 15 of 23 pass attempts.
Minshew spread the wealth while the Raiders’ passing offense was almost entirely carried by Adams, who had a bounce-back game with 13 catches for 126 yards.
“I’d love to run the ball 30-plus times, but 21 (targets) with 13 receptions, that’s your star player,” Pierce said.
Falling into a deficit necessitated getting away from Zamir White despite the second-year running back playing well for a second straight game in place of Josh Jacobs, who’s dealing with a quad injury. Jacobs went through a pregame workout but was ultimately ruled out and missed his third consecutive contest.
There’s no reason to come back now, as the loss to Indianapolis officially eliminated Las Vegas from playoff contention.
The Raiders face the Broncos at Allegiant Stadium next Sunday in both AFC West teams’ regular-season finales.
“We get paid to play 17 games,” Pierce said. “I’m being paid to instruct and coach for 17 games. We’ve got one at home left. We’re moving forward. If we had won the game, I’d come up here and say the same thing. We’re moving forward and we’ll be off of this in 24 hours and getting ready for a divisional opponent at home.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
