Jeff Saturday says ‘plenty of blame to go around’ after Colts’ record-breaking collapse against Vikings

Former Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday made headlines earlier this year when he became the first head coach hired without any coaching experience in the NFL, CFL or college football since Norm Van Brocklin was hired by the Minnesota Vikings in 1961. On Saturday, coach Saturday made headlines for being on the wrong end of the largest comeback in NFL history.

Saturday’s Colts acquired a 33-0 lead over the Vikings by halftime, and looked like they were well on their way to a blowout victory in front of an embarrassed Minnesota home crowd. However, the second half was very different. The Vikings came out and went on a 36-3 run in the second half to tie the game at 36 apiece by the final whistle to force overtime. Vikings kicker Greg Joseph was then able to convert a 40-yard field goal to seal the deal — an historic 33-point comeback win. 

So, what went wrong? Well, a lot of things, but Saturday pointed to undisciplined football and penalties as a big reason for the collapse. 

“Undisciplined football,” Saturday said after the stunning loss. “Can’t do that. Can’t keep teams like this in it, and we just had too many of those [penalties] on both sides of the ball. Again, there’s plenty of blame to go around.” 

The Colts racked up 11 penalties for a total of 103 yards. They had an interesting penalty on the second-to-last play of the game in overtime, where Ifeadi Odenigbo — a former Viking — was called for delay of game as he attempted to slow down the Vikings from getting back to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball before the game-winning field goal. That turned what would have been a 45-yard field-goal attempt into a 40-yard attempt.

The Colts offense fell apart in the second half, as they scored just three points. Then, the defense struggled to stop Kirk Cousins and his wide receiving corps. Indy gave up a whopping 22 points in the fourth quarter! 

It’s going to take some time for Saturday and his squad to get over this loss, especially considering the fact that no NFL team has ever blown a lead this big.