Indianapolis Colts Coach Frank Reich on Playoff Exit: ‘It Doesn’t Imply We Failed to Get Anything’
INDIANAPOLIS — The proverbial NFL clock does not manage substantially time for teams to contact it a season and say fantastic-bye.
Significantly less than 24 hrs after Saturday’s 27-24 AFC Wild Card Playoff loss at Buffalo, the Indianapolis Colts packed up their locker contents and geared up to enter the offseason after what they regarded a premature postseason close to a promising 11-acquire time.
Third-calendar year head coach Frank Reich expressed his adore and appreciation for the gamers and their initiatives. Then he shared some of all those parting views with the media in a online video connect with later on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re bunch of ridiculous males and ladies below,” he explained, “because we’re likely on this journey, we’re finding ourselves completely ready for this journey every single calendar year wherever there is 32 teams and only a person is likely to end up pleased.
“The rest of us are heading to be upset. So we’re dissatisfied and damage. Make no mistake about it, we’ve received one purpose, and that is to get a globe championship. And then right after that, it’s to earn much more. By not reaching our purpose, it doesn’t indicate we did not gain just about anything. It doesn’t suggest we didn’t expand. I believe that we did. And it will support us as we start out that journey subsequent yr.”
The decline is however way too contemporary in quite a few respects, which would make it not possible for Reich to search into a crystal ball and be selected of what comes about future in the offseason.
He admitted a prolonged dialogue with 17th-year quarterback Philip Rivers was emotional, and told the media he would like to have the 39-12 months-aged passer return for 2021. But both realize it’s a business, and that’s a subject to be solved at a later on time.
So, also, is understanding no matter if the Colts need a new offensive left deal with. Tenth-year pro Anthony Castonzo skipped the last two game titles owing to season-ending ankle surgical treatment. He has a person much more yr on his contract, but probably the 32-year-previous chief on the O-line decides to retire. Reich conceded that the Colts have reviewed the possibility of going three-time, All-Professional guard Quenton Nelson to that placement. But, all over again, it is much too early to talk in absolutes.

Coach Frank Reich pats centre Ryan Kelly on the again in Las Vegas.
Mark J. Rebilas/United states of america Currently Athletics
It is as well early for just about anything but acknowledging every single other a person closing time right before strolling out of the Indiana Farm Bureau Soccer Middle and heading in separate techniques, understanding the roster will adjust and some bonds will not continue to be.
“Difficult reduction,” Reich mentioned. “It’s going to sting. Every loss stings, but specially a postseason playoff decline stings worse. You are at the top of the mountain. You are at the last summit to the best. You have designed the terrain of some of the most challenging factors, obtaining by way of a very long and grueling year, you set by yourself in place to be one of the 14 teams that experienced a chance to get to the top.
“We believed we experienced the crew to do that. We considered we could do that. We considered we experienced the coaches and gamers to do that.”
The seventh-seeded Colts (11-6) were 6.5-point underdogs towards the 2nd-seeded Expenses, but experienced the edge in overall yards with a season-large 472, dominated time of possession by more than 8 minutes, and did not have a turnover.
The Expenditures (14-3) prevailed behind quarterback Josh Allen throwing two touchdown passes and jogging for an additional rating. And the Expenditures advanced mainly because of a defense that restricted the Colts to just two scores in five visits within the purple zone. Way too a lot of instances, together with late in the second quarter when Reich’s staff reached the Bills’ 1, the Colts came up empty.
As Rivers said immediately after the recreation, it was not that the Colts were outmatched. They just built more issues than the Charges.
Reich mentioned how he has been to 6 Super Bowls as a participant and coach, obtaining won a ring as Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator in 2018. It is that working experience in figuring out what the playoff journey needs that persuaded him his 2020 Colts were of Super Bowl-caliber.
“I feel this locker space is total of very good football players, guys who function difficult and they enjoy the method,” Reich reported. “But then there requirements to be a unique chemistry, a closeness, and a bond. I know this team has that.
“And then you have got to have men where it is not also large for ‘em … and believe that and see that, and see the massive image and have that perception that you can make it to the major.”