A kicker tying a franchise record with five field goals sounds like a pretty good day. For the Colts, it was more like a warning sign.

Spencer Shrader made all five of his kicks Sunday, but Indianapolis still lost 34-22 to Pittsburgh. The Colts punted just once and racked up 332 yards. They just couldn’t find their way into the end zone often enough.

Pittsburgh didn’t have to grind out every score, either. Jaylen Warren turned a short pass into an 80-yard touchdown and later broke a 50-yard run. Indianapolis just kept doing the hard part of the drive before settling for three points.

Shrader’s first two came from 57 and 56 yards after drives stalled around the Pittsburgh 39. Those were valuable saves. The kicks from 22, 40, and 28 yards told a different story. Two came after they had first-and-goal, and the other followed a drive that reached the Steelers’ 22. That’s where the field started to feel too small for Indianapolis.

Even the Colts’ only touchdown came with a warning attached. A 42-yard pass to Josh Downs and a 22-yarder to Laquon Treadwell moved the ball to the Steelers’ two-yard line. Jonathan Taylor gained one yard on first down, got stuffed behind an extra lineman on second, and Daniel Jones’ sneak went nowhere on third. Tyler Warren finally scored on a direct snap on fourth down.

Four tries to gain two yards. It worked, but Pittsburgh had already made it clear how little room they planned to give Taylor.

The opening drive of the second half showed the problem most clearly. Jones found Warren for 29 yards to the three, and Indianapolis hurried to the line before handing the ball to Taylor out of shotgun. He gained one yard. The Colts then brought in tackle Luke Tenuta as an eligible receiver and ran Taylor again, but Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen stopped him two yards behind the line.

Just like that, third-and-goal moved back to the four. Jones’ pass to Keenan Allen fell incomplete, and Indianapolis settled for a 22-yard field goal.

A stuffed run that close to the goal line doesn’t just waste a down. It gives the defense confidence.

Indianapolis Kept Reaching the Goal Line Without Finishing

The Colts followed Warren’s 50-yard score up with a field goal from 40 yards out, trimming Pittsburgh’s lead to five. The drive stalled at the edge of the red zone, but it was the same pattern: short gain, obvious passing situation, can't finish.

The last good chance was almost cruel. Taylor finally found the edge for a 20-yard run, taking Indianapolis to the Pittsburgh 10. Then the Colts threw three straight incompletions. A 28-yard field goal made it 24-22. Pittsburgh answered with a touchdown, and Indianapolis never got that close again.

So where does the blame go? Start with the ground game. Taylor finished with 45 yards on 15 carries, and one run gave him 20 of those yards. Pittsburgh came in determined to stop him, and the Colts couldn’t create much consistent movement, even when they brought in an extra blocker. Still, calling three straight passes right after Taylor’s best run was a pretty jarring answer. Shane Steichen never found a sequence that forced the defense to respect both options near the goal line.

The passing game didn’t bail him out, either. Alec Pierce was on injured reserve. Darius Slayton and Ashton Dulin were out. Treadwell ended up with eight targets and just two catches. Jones threw for 267 yards without a turnover and took only one sack. Protection wasn’t really the issue. Near the goal line, Pittsburgh’s defensive backs had less space to cover and kept getting their hands on the ball. Jones and his receivers had to win in tighter windows, and they just didn’t.

Pittsburgh Exposed a Real Problem

This isn’t proof that Indianapolis has suddenly forgotten how to score in the red zone. Before Sunday, the Colts had scored touchdowns on all nine of their goal-to-go drives and ranked sixth in red-zone touchdown rate at 75 percent. Taylor scored twice against Washington the week before. But Kansas City had already flashed a warning in Week 2: after the Colts got to the Chiefs’ 17 in overtime, two Taylor runs went backward for three yards, and the drive ended with a field goal. Pittsburgh went right at that same weak spot — and pushed much harder.

Steichen said he needed to call a better game, and he’s right. The players who have to make the blocks and catches own part of it, too. The question for Indianapolis isn’t whether they can get close. Sunday answered that.

It’s whether this offense can finish the job once the field shrinks and the defense only has ten yards left to defend.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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