Post Game Press Conference – Colts HC Shane Steichen
COLTS HEAD COACH SHANE STEICHEN
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
December 1, 2024
SS: Just a great team win. Found a way there in the fourth quarter to get it done. It was some back and forth the entire game. But our guys offensively right there at the end. Obviously Anthony [Richardson] getting in for the two-point, Alec [Pierce] making the play there at the end. Some fourth-down conversions that were huge during the game. I think we were 3-for-3 there which was big. Good team win.
Q: What’s the decision on the two-point conversion?
SS: It was one of those deals, inside 30 seconds. Felt good about the call. Obviously got to feel good about the call, but go for the win right there in that situation. If there’s obviously like a lot more time, maybe over two minutes or something, maybe take the field goal and go from there. But felt good about the call there at that time.
Q: What did you like about the call?
SS: Put it in 5 [Anthony Richardson]’s hands to go get it. Now, it was a zone read to where it might have went to J.T. [Jonathan Taylor] around the edge. But he was reading the guy and, boom, he kept it up in the middle. Had Quenton [Nelson] pulling around there for him so it was good.
Q: This is the second time in three weeks he’s done one of these. What has he shown you just in his growth the past few weeks?
SS: It’s huge growth. Anytime you’ve got a young player that can lead your team down to a touchdown, game-winning touchdown, in this league, it comes down to a lot of those in this league, and that’s huge growth. It’s huge growth, that’s huge confidence for him. Huge confidence for our team that he can get those things done. Fourth-down situations, got to have it. Put the ball in his hands again on some outside zone stuff. Just a phenomenal effort by him today.
Q: To do it after a couple of interceptions, not his best day, frustrating offensive day overall. What’s that say to you in terms of the context?
SS: Great resilience. Great resilience. The first interception he had, it was a hell of a play by the guy. He jumped up and tipped it. The next one, the guy just undercut the route. You know what I mean? So you learn from those. Like I said, it wasn’t like, dramatic. I’m not even concerned about that whatsoever. I thought he played his tail off. He really did.
Q: 19 plays on that last drive. What did you think of his poise overall even after some drops?
SS: There’s no doubt. It shows the resiliency that he has even through some of those situations. Like you said, 19-play drive, holy smokes. That’s big time to go down there and score with little to no time on the clock to get the victory.
Q: What did you see on the completion to Mo Alie-Cox that sparked that drive on fourth down?
SS: It was huge. It was a scramble play, ended up being a scramble play on that one. We were trying to catch man-to-man. They kind of zoned some things off. But again, got to have it situation. He created, hit Mo for the big one to get the first down.
Q: When your quarterback is the kind of competitor Anthony Richardson is, just physically in key moments what does it do for that locker room?
SS: I think it’s huge. It sends a message to everyone, the toughness, the resilience he’s playing with has been phenomenal. We’ve got to keep that thing going. We’ve got a four-game season coming up. We’ve got a bye coming up. Get some rest. Give those guys some time off. And then come back ready to roll for Denver.
Q: You said you feel good about the call, did you earlier in the season envision you would have an opportunity to go for two and that was the play that you’d use, that QB power –
SS: No, that was the play that was designed for that week. You kind of go off of what defenses are doing schematically. And then you have your two point calls for that week.
Q: You’re from a down and distance that was pretty similar to the two-point conversion on those three plays prior to it. You had to have quite a few play calls for that area to be able to still have one you were comfortable with?
SS: First one we ran was a play we scored on earlier with Anthony [Richardson]. Then we came back with another one, just the outside one to J.T. [Jonathan Taylor] And then obviously had to have it there with the fourth down. Ended up calling a timeout there to get the look to see what they were in. Thought they were in a little different look, and called timeout. Came back, maybe thought they were bluffing something. And then stayed with the call. And then obviously Alec [Pierce] hit the big one there on fourth down.
Q: What did you think about the physical effort to get in? Wasn’t like they just let him in.
SS: Shoot, the physicalness that he runs with down there, it’s hard to stop him down there. Shoot, they’ve got to have a couple, three or four guys to get him down. It was hell of a run by him.
Q: Offensive line, you have guys like Danny Pinter and Mark Glowinski coming in there. How important was what they were able to do? And you kind of mixed and match along the front of that offensive line?
SS: It was huge to have those guys step in, obviously, with Danny coming in there and Glow stepping up and moving Matt [Goncalves] to right tackle, and obviously Quenton [Nelson] has been a staple for us. And getting Bernie [Bernhard Raimann] back – hell of an effort by those guys. I thought they battled all day. I think our run average, I don’t know exactly what it was, I think we went over 100 or whatever, but those guys battled. We got three, four yards a pop. It was pretty good. So overall it was a good performance.
Q: Philosophically, regardless of time for the two-pointer, you’re right there, you have a chance to win. Is that what you were leaning toward?
SS: No doubt, it depends on the situation and the season. Maybe some playoff implications. I’m just talking hypothetically. But that situation right there felt good, going for it, a two-point play, down there, you’re right down there with 16 seconds left. We already made it down here, let’s go win it.
Q: Can you talk about the defensive performance today? They gave up a lot of yards.
SS: We’ll go back and look at that. Obviously we’ve got to do a good job stopping the run. And some completions they were getting, just looking at some things. But they battled. Our defense always battles. They’ve been playing really good throughout the last couple of weeks. We’ll go back and look and get some things cleaned up.
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