11:39 a.m. ET
Stephen Holder ESPN
The day after one of the Indianapolis Colts’ worst offensive performances in recent memory, the team fired five-year head coach Frank Reich.
The Colts’ 26-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday was their third straight loss. It was the latest example of their deepening offensive challenges, which seem insurmountable despite a recent quarterback move from Matt Ryan to Sam Ehlinger and last week’s firing of offensive coordinator Marcus Brady.
The 60-year-old Reich was 40-33-1 (.547) in the regular season and had a 1-2 record in two playoff games. It was a tenure defined by incessant turnover at the quarterback; The Colts had different opening-day starters in each of Reich’s five seasons as the franchise struggled to find a quarterback to fill the shoes of Andrew Luck, who retired before the 2019 season. The last two’s tenures – Carson Wentz and Ryan – ended ugly (Wentz was traded after one season and Ryan was benched after seven starts).
| NFL rank | ||
|---|---|---|
| YPG | 315.1 | 27 |
| meters per game | 4.8 | 30 |
| meters per rush | 3.7 | 30 |
| RZ TD pct. | 44 | 31 |
| — ESPN stats and information | ||
The Colts have disbanded since the end of last season when Indianapolis lost their last two games, although only one win was needed to earn a postseason berth. The 2021 Finals, a 26-11 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars 3-14, was a particularly unsightly performance, angering owner Jim Irsay and prompting him to re-commit to fix the problems, which led to the bad result.
Ultimately, the year 2022 did not bring significantly different results.
Offensively, the Colts (3-5-1) are in their worst form since Reich’s tenure. After Sunday’s game, the longtime NFL quarterback and Super Bowl winner offensive coordinator for the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles alluded to the Colts’ frustration at being so inept on offense, his specialty.
“Offensive performance, that’s why I was brought here. It’s my responsibility,” he said. “Well, we have the players. We have the players who are good enough. I have to do a better job. It starts with me on the offensive. I have to do a better job of getting the guys ready to play, putting guys in a good position to win and having answers when we run into problems.”
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The Colts failed to convert any of their 14 third-down attempts on Sunday, the worst single-game tally in the NFL in 30 years. Indianapolis generated 121 rushing yards in total, the team’s lowest performance since 1997 and Reich’s lowest tenure at 84 yards.
During his time at Indianapolis, Reich earned a reputation for bringing the team back from the brink. The Colts were notoriously slow starters, but they always bounced back towards the end of the season. The Colts started 2018 1-5 but finished 10-6 and made the playoffs. Last year they started 1-4 before rebounding to 9-6 only to lose those final two games of the regular season.
The fate of General Manager Chris Ballard, the man who assembled the team and hired Reich, remains unclear.