Another week and another loss for not only the franchise but also the fanbase. The Colts dropped their seventh consecutive loss to the Houston Texans by a final score of 38-30. Colts head coach Shane Steichen is now 2-10 against the Jaguars and Texans in his career. A poor record that does not look like it is improving anytime soon.
If there is something positive from this game, it was the continued strong play of Alec Pierce and the potential breakout performance of now backup quarterback Riley Leonard. The coaching staff said he earned the start today, and he backed it up with a strong performance. Leonard finished with 270 yards passing and 2 TDs. While he was not perfect and made some mistakes, you could tell his growth was on the rise.
After the loss, the fanbase was ready for the only bit of news left to digest. The announcement came on Sunday evening, when the Colts’ ownership group said both Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen will return for the 2026-27 season. I made my case for retaining Shane Steichen, but in no world can you justify keeping Chris Ballard. Just like last season, we are back to square one with another lost season.
Where’s The Justification?
The Ballard tenure will now reach 10 seasons at the start of the new league year in March. Plenty has been written and discussed about the achievements of his tenure. Believe me, there are not many achievements to boast about. They continue to dwindle as his tenure extends.
I won’t get into the nitty-gritty tenure. If you are reading this, then you are a true fan of this franchise and know precisely what we are all worried about. To paraphrase it, it’s now eyeing a decade of complete and total mediocrity, and most with this resume would have been fired. Also, would have been fired long before the opportunity to get to 10 years was even an afterthought.
Ballard has yet to put together a complete roster from top to bottom. He has yet to find a coach who can coach the team he builds. In defense of Shane Steichen, he has achieved more with less than most coaches have. He continues to be conservative with roster construction, until this past season. Most importantly, he has been unable to figure out the one position you need a plan for. That position is quarterback, and they still have questions about it as you are reading this.
I completely agreed with Ballard’s argument in the past about drafting a quarterback. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I give him credit for taking the chance and securing competition in the summer for what has become a failed experiment with Anthony Richardson. It was a failure in the scouting and a larger failure in handling his maturity and growth.
How Will Carlie Irsay-Gordon Be Judged From This Decision?
We talked after the Jacksonville game about the looming decision for this new ownership group. This is, without question, the first of many massive decisions these daughters will have to navigate. As we all know, you never get a second chance at a first impression.
A first impression from Owner/CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon was that she wants this franchise to be “the best.” That is a broad-ranging phrase that can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. What I took that phrase to mean was that she wanted this turnaround with better results, and if this braintrust could not deliver, she would find someone who could. Now, with this decision, she has chosen to stick with the general manager who has proven he is not a winner.
The first impression she will now be portraying to the fans is one of her late father, Jim Irsay. Her father was sometimes nostalgic to a fault and did not like change. Irsay-Gordon had the opportunity to show she would be different than her father, and she chose to stay the course—a continued course of mediocrity and football purgatory.
An opportunity to show the fanbase she was serious about winning and serious about making a statement, and she again chose to keep the mediocrity. The injuries were a factor this season, but a competent general manager would have had a better-constructed roster to handle them.
Being a Colts fan the past decade has been difficult, and the fanbase has suffered from the decisions of Chris Ballard and staff. This decision will obviously not bring any hope or satisfaction for next season. The one person who brought back that hopeful direction has taken it right back, and now we are left feeling the same as we did throughout this season: more questions and fewer answers.
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