1. Inside one of Philip Rivers' best throws of Week 15.
Facing a third-and-seven just after the two-minute warning, and with the Colts trailing by two points, Philip Rivers delivered one of his best throws in his first game since Jan. 9, 2021.
At the snap, Pierce set up an outside release on cornerback Josh Jobe and began pushing vertically down the far sideline. Rivers, less than two seconds after catching the snap, released the throw when Pierce was only five yards beyond the line of scrimmage at about the Colts' 40-yard line.
Pierce got his head around, re-positioned his body, fought through contact and hauled in the pass from Rivers, who delivered it into an ideal back-shoulder location along the sideline. It was a 16-yard gain to the Seattle 49-yard line, which helped set up Blake Grupe's go-ahead 60-yard field goal.
Pierce hadn't worked with Rivers until Wednesday of last week. But after he learned the Colts were bringing in Rivers, the 6-foot-3, 213 pound Pierce went and watched some film of Mike Williams – the 6-foot-4, 218 pound former Chargers receiver who led the NFL with 20.4 yards per reception in 2019, Rivers' final year with the Chargers. The goal there was figuring out what Rivers likes in a big-body outside receiver.
Last Thursday, Rivers and Pierce spent some extra time working on this exact route. Rivers said he and Pierce worked on four or five of those plays after Pierce told Rivers opposing defensive backs were playing him high and over the top, owing to Pierce's threat as a downfield receiver.
As Sunday's game went on, Pierce was not heavily involved – he wasn't even targeted until he drew a pass interference flag on a third-and-eight early in the fourth quarter.
But what happened on that pass interference informed Rivers and Pierce of something. Jobe was squatting on Pierce running stop routes at the sticks, with the Seahawks believing Rivers wasn't going to push the ball downfield outside the numbers.
So in a similar situation on the Colts' next drive, Rivers and Pierce used that information – and the work they put in during the week – to deliver in a key moment.
"We went right back to the go ball and he made a heck of a contested play," Rivers said.
Rivers' relationship-building ability with Colts pass-catchers stood out to those guys over the last few days, and plays like the one Pierce made will only accelerate that process over the final few weeks of the regular season.
"A lot of confidence in all the wideouts in a short period of time, obviously I've been around (Michael Pittman Jr.), but not the other guys in person," Rivers. "So, like I said, those kind of plays are I had full trust in those. Those are-trust building, kind of like, we did that. But we don't have time – it's not like we're building this thing out. You're looking at 21 days left, you know, whatever, to find a way to get in."
2. The Colts being down both starting tackles and both starting outside cornerbacks should be noted here.
The Colts last week placed cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. (concussion) and right tackle Braden Smith (concussion/neck) on injured reserve, ending the regular season for both veterans. Cornerback Sauce Gardner (calf) missed his second straight game on Sunday. And, just after the two-minute warning, left tackle Bernhard Raimann exited the game with an elbow injury (he did not return).
Backups in those key spots, for the most part, acquitted themselves well. Rookie right tackle Jalen Travis did not allow a pressure in 29 pass blocking snaps on Sunday, per Pro Football Focus, while Luke Tenuta – who stepped in at left tackle for Raimann – also did not allow a pressure on 13 pass blocking snaps.
Tenuta hadn't played in a regular season game since 2022, when he played seven snaps for the Green Bay Packers after the Colts waived him in the middle of the season.
"I thought (Tenuta) went out there and battled like crazy," Steichen said. "He's been doing a hell of a job for us all year."
At cornerback, undrafted rookie Johnathan Edwards battled all game and had an impressive pass break-up on a throw to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba late in the first half.
And, too, the Colts held Seattle to just three rushing yards on nine carries in the first half, doing so without stalwart defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (neck), who returned to practice last week but was not ready to be activated off injured reserve.
Still, holding up for 30 minutes with several backups in the game is different than 60 minutes – especially at Lumen Field against one of the NFL's best teams in the Seahawks.
In the second half, running backs Jonathan Taylor and Ameer Abdullah were held to 30 yards on 10 carries (they had 72 yards on 19 carries in the first half). With the Colts' run-oriented game plan, Seattle's ability to slow down Taylor and Abdullah heavily contributed to the Colts scoring just three points over the final two quarters.
And while Seattle's longest play in the first half was an 18-yard completion to Smith-Njigba, quarterback Sam Darnold was able to complete chunks of 27, 29 and 39 yards. After kicker Blake Grupe knocked in a 60-yard field goal 52 seconds left, Darnold completed passes of 17 and eight yards to wide receiver Rasheed Shaheed; those 25 yards were all Seattle needed for kicker Jason Myers to get into range for a game-winning 56-yard field goal.
3. Some context for what the Colts defense did against Seattle.
Entering Sunday, the Colts were 92-5 in franchise history when not allowing a touchdown, per Sports-Reference. Their last loss when not allowing a touchdown was a 6-0 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2018; the Colts had never lost a game when not allowing a touchdown and scoring more than 10 points.
Meanwhile, in 2025, teams were 24-0 when not allowing a touchdown prior to Week 15. The last team to win a game when not scoring a touchdown was the...Seahawks, who did so in a 6-3 win over the Chicago Bears in Week 17 of the 2024 season.
Seattle is now just the sixth franchise in NFL history to win at least two games in a row in which they did not score a touchdown, joining the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, the 1925 Detroit Lions, the 1923 Akron Pros, the 1923 Chicago Bears and the 1922 Chicago Cardinals.
So there's one bit of context. Another: The Seahawks entered Week 15 second in the NFL in points per game (29.8), and five of their first 10 wins were by 22 or more points.
The Colts held Seattle to 2/13 on third down (15 percent), which was the Seahawks' third-worst showing on those big downs all season (coincidentally: All four of Seattle's worst third down percentages this season came against AFC South teams). For the Colts, holding Seattle to 15 percent on third down was their second-best showing on third down, behind only keeping the Atlanta Falcons to 0/8 on third down in Berlin in Week 10.
In plenty of ways, the Colts' defense did enough to win this game. But one thing does stick out here: The Colts, for the first time this season, did not take the ball away; Seattle entered Week 15 with 23 turnovers, the second-highest total in the NFL.
4. Some under-the-radar standouts.
If the Colts were going to win on the road against a Seahawks team vying for the NFC No. 1 seed, they were going to need plays to be made in all three phases. And the Colts nearly got that from a few key players:
- Four of Rigoberto Sanchez's five punts were downed inside the 20; on the lone one that wasn't, returner Rasheed Shaheed threw a shoulder into gunner Tyler Goodson, preventing him from getting to the ball, which bounced at the five-yard line and then into the end zone. Goodson also had two tackles on returns (one punt, one kickoff) and downed a Sanchez punt at the six-yard line in the fourth quarter. With a game plan that put field position at a premium, Sanchez did his part to force Seattle into a handful of backed up starts to possessions.
- Defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, lined up as a three-technique on a third-and-four early in the third quarter, hit a monster spin move on left guard Grey Zabel to quickly pressure quarterback Sam Darnol. Tuimoloau, the Colts' 2205 second-round pick, had three total pressures against the Seahawks and has had multiple pressures in three consecutive games.
- Defensive end Laiatu Latu blew up a handful of plays in the first half, including when he went low through guard Anthony Bradford to create a pile around running back Kenneth Walker III for a loss of one on a third-and-four run in the first quarter. Latu also took advantage of being one-on-one with running back Zach Charbonnet on a third-and-eight dropback in the second quarter, dipping his shoulder and bringing down Darnold for a sack.
- Running back Ameer Abdullah caught all five of his targets for 32 yards, as the Colts ran a handful of plays with Abdullah and Taylor lined up in the backfield (the Colts did this in 2020, too, with Taylor and Nyheim Hines lined up with Rivers in the backfield). Abdullah also had a 44-yard kickoff return.
5. One more thought on the Colts' game plan.
Shane Steichen, over his three years as the Colts' head coach and playcaller, has largely trended toward being an aggressive decision-maker. But aggressiveness was not what the Colts needed against the Seahawks – the plan was to control the clock, run the ball and grind out a low-scoring win.
It nearly worked.
Every head coach's decision-making comes under scrutiny in a loss, and Steichen on Sunday was asked to explain a few things about the final minute of game play.
On a third-and-seven at the Seahawks' 46-yard line, Rivers handed off to Taylor for a four-yard gain. Seattle used its last timeout, and Grupe connected from 60 yards.
"Soft zone, got it closer to field goal range," Steichen said. "Instead of throwing incomplete, now you're probably in no-man's land, probably going to go for it there. So got it into field goal range."
That's the important thing – had Rivers thrown incomplete, the Colts probably would've had to go for it on fourth-and-seven against a top-three NFL defense in a hostile environment. Instead, the run gained four yards, which gave Steichen the confidence to call for Grupe to kick the ball.
Steichen was also asked why Grupe's ensuing kickoff was returnable. Steichen said the goal was to leave the Seahawks – who were out of timeouts – with the least amount of time possible. Shaheed's return got Seattle to the 37-yard line and took 10 seconds off the clock.
"They had no timeouts, so obviously we're trying to bleed as much time off the clock there," Steichen said. "And I think they got (to the) 37, so it would've been 35 (with a touchback) so it's a two yard difference there. So that's how we played it."
The larger point here is Steichen adapted to what the Colts needed on Sunday. It didn't work, no matter how close "almost" was here. But Steichen showed he can shift his team's mentality given the circumstances, and that's an important thing to note as the Colts look to scrap together some wins to close out the 2025 season.
