3 players to blame for Colts MNF loss to 49ers

The Indianapolis Colts endured a a stunning coup on Monday Night Football in week 16 the san francisco 49ers hit the road and played their best game of the season against a colts team that looked outmatched and overwhelmed.

The 48-27 drubbing of the Colts in San Francisco was no knockout blow. But India’s play-off aspirations are on life support after the team was thoroughly outplayed in prime time. The Colts now need to win their final two games and get some big help to have a chance at the postseason. And those last two games are no chance. Indianapolis will face the red-hot Jacksonville Jaguars (who have won six straight games) in Week 17. Then the Colts face the Houston Texans (who have won seven straight games) on the road in the season finale.

Indianapolis didn’t look like a team that belongs in the playoff conversation on Monday night. The 49ers matched the Colts, going up and down the field at will. And India’s defense could do absolutely nothing to stop them.

The Colts defense is down

A defiant Colts team rallied to save their season in Week 15. Indianapolis held the Seattle Seahawks’ high-powered offense to 18 points and 314 total yards while winning the possession battle. The defensive effort was rusty Philip Rivers a chance to win in his debut in 2025. Although the Colts came up short, they were in the game until the final seconds.

Week 16 was a completely different story.

The 49ers outscored themselves 46.5 over/under in the game, scoring a career-high 48 points on Monday night. San Francisco totaled 440 yards of offense in a dominant performance.

The The 49ers didn’t have to punt in the 16th week. They scored on seven of their 10 possessions. The other three were a missed 64-yard field goal at the end of the first half, a fumble in the winning formation at the end of the game and an interception in the fourth quarter.

The pick was arguably too little too late, coming with less than five minutes to play and Indianapolis trailing by 14. But whatever boost it provided was immediately nullified when Rivers threw pick six for Dee Winters three shots later.

The interception was Brock Purdy’s only blemish in an otherwise outstanding performance. He was 25/34 for 295 yards and a career-best five touchdowns. Purdy became the first 49ers KB to threw five touchdowns in a game in 35 years.

Yes, the Colts were missing Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward on Monday night. But both cornerbacks were also out last week when the team kept Sam Darnold in check. Purdy decimated Indianapolis’ secondary, connecting with George Kittle seven times for 115 yards and a score. Jauan Jennings added five receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown. And DeMarcus Robinson chipped in with a 2/23/1 line.

And then there was Christian McCaffrey.

Training counts

Time to shift focus to India’s overall game plan. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo obviously deserves much of the blame for the Colts’ Monday night disaster. But overall, we put the team’s coaching mistakes squarely on the shoulders of Shane Steichen.

Clearly, McCaffrey is the problem. He just recorded his fifth 1,000-yard season with a performance in Week 16 and is approaching the 2,000-yard total for the third time in his career. But McCaffrey being good at football is no surprise. Still, the Colts seemed completely unprepared for him, which is puzzling because he’s the first player you’d expect the team to game plan around.

The 49ers’ All-Pro RB managed 117 yards against the Colts’ fifth-ranked defense. And Indianapolis returned DeForest Buckner from injury in Week 16. It was McCaffrey’s first 100-yard rushing game since Week 9. He averaged 5.6 yards per carry Monday night. And when he wasn’t pounding the Colts on the ground, he was going largely uncovered on extremely predictable routes off the snap, catching six passes for 29 yards and two touchdowns.

The plan on the other side of the ball was just as mystifying. While it was nice to see 44-year-old Philip Rivers push the ball down the field, it didn’t make sense to rely on a quarterback who hadn’t yet retired. Rivers picked off 35 passes on Monday night. I Jonathan Taylor only got 16 carries.

Of course, the scenario of the game in the second half forced an even tougher attack. But the delay doesn’t fully explain Indy’s bizarre mix of running and passing. The team started setting it up. Eight of the 10 plays on the Colts’ opening drive were passes. Indianapolis had played 16 of its first 22 games on Monday night.

To be fair, the approach worked. Rivers cut the 49ers with a touchdown on his first two drives. But Steichen must have known—or should have known—that a game plan with difficult rivers would not be sustainable. For whatever reason, the team made little effort to get Taylor involved in the first place.

Tailor’s tailspin

It seemed like the Colts were determined to prove that Rivers could throw the ball down the field. And then they stuck with that plan after some initial success. It would be easy to blame Taylor’s rough night on not being involved early on. He finished with just 16 carries and three targets, compared to 21 and eight for McCaffrey.

But Taylor did very little with the opportunities he was given. The Pro Bowl RB had just 46 yards rushing against the 49ers, averaging a brutal 2.9 yards per carry. He added three receptions for 33 yards. I Taylor scored a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter that made it a seven-point game. However, it wasn’t nearly enough of a contribution from the Colts’ best offensive player.

Although the 49ers have a strong run defense, they haven’t exactly shut down opposing rushers lately. Tony Pollard converted 14 carries for 104 yards and a score against San Francisco in Week 15. Quinshawn Judkins had 91 yards and 109 total yards against the nine in Week 14.

Taylor’s disappointing game on Monday night was the latest in the veteran RB’s post-bye slump. It seems like a distant memory at this point, but Taylor was in the middle of the MVP conversation after collecting 244 yards and three touchdowns against the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin.

After that explosion in Week 10, Taylor tapered off. He hasn’t been in triple figures on the ground since, with rushing scores of 58, 85, 74, 87 and now 46. His touchdown Monday night was just his second in the last five games.

Taylor’s fall came at the worst possible time for the Colts. The team lost Daniel Jones for the season and turned to Rivers in hopes of salvaging an 8-2 start. But Taylor began to decline before the quarterback change. Jones tore his Achilles in Week 14 while the decline of RB started in the 12th week.

Monday’s home loss to the 49ers is likely the death knell for the Colts’ season. There is still a way for Indy to make the playoffs. But the team currently has only a one percent chance of winning a Wild Card spot, according to The Athletic.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow after the Colts went all in on the 2025 season. The team sent two first-round draft picks to the New York Jets for Sosa Gardner when they were close to making the playoffs. Indianapolis brought Rivers out of retirement when Jones was down for the year. Now the Colts will likely miss the postseason altogether.