The Indianapolis Colts suffered an incredibly disappointing loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 16, and afterward, quarterback Gardner Minshew was not happy with how his teammates handled the situation.
The Colts could have strengthened their playoff positioning with a win and would have actually moved into first place in the AFC South had they taken care of business in Atlanta.
Instead, Indianapolis fell to 8-7 and is clinging to the final Wild Card spot in the conference with three other teams also sitting at 8-7 behind it.
Minshew, who gave a fiery postgame speech to his teammates following the loss, is not a fan of scoreboard watching and thinks the Colts were doing a little too much of that instead of focusing on the task at hand: beating the Falcons.
“You start counting wins and you start doing schedule math and you look around, it’s like, ‘Well they lost to Carolina; we beat the Steelers,'” Minshew said, according to Stephen Holder of ESPN. “Well you know what? You’ve got to go earn it right now. And if you take this lightly, you might not end up with another [chance].”
Minshew went 20-for-37 with 201 yards and an interception while carrying the ball four times for 31 yards in Indy’s listless 29-10 loss.
The 27-year-old stepped in as the Colts’ starting quarterback back in Week 5 when rookie signal-caller Anthony Richardson went down for the season with a shoulder injury.
On the season overall, Minshew has thrown for 2,940 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine picks while completing 62.5 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 83.9.
Minshew, who played his collegiate football at Washington State, was originally selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
He spent his first couple of seasons with the Jaguars, playing in 23 games with 20 starts and totaling 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in a rather impressive run.
The Flowood, Ms. native then spent two years as a backup with the Philadelphia Eagles before making his way to the Colts this past offseason.
Gardner Minshew and Co. will take on the Las Vegas Raiders next weekend before battling the Houston Texans to wrap up the regular season on Jan. 7.
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