1. Shane Steichen on Monday dissected his playcalls in the fourth quarter and overtime.

The Colts held the ball with a 20-9 lead early in the fourth quarter after linebacker Zaire Franklin knocked the ball out of running back Kareem Hunt's hands, with cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. falling on the loose ball at the Colts' six-yard line. Nothing the Colts had done on their previous six possessions – on which they averaged six yards and +.204 EPA per play – suggested a late-game lull was looming.

Yet the Colts went three-and-out on four consecutive possessions, which allowed the Chiefs to ultimately tie the game to end regulation and then win it in overtime. The blow-by-blow:

First drive (14:48 4th quarter):

• First and 10: Jonathan Taylor -2 yard rush
• Second and 12: Daniel Jones incomplete pass intended for Josh Downs, had to throw hot around blitzing (and leaping) cornerback
• Third and 12: Jones backs up in collapsing pocket, incomplete pass intended for Downs under pressure

Second drive (8:31 4th quarter):

• First and 10: Play-action pass to Michael Pittman Jr. on an out-breaking route; ball is knocked out of Pittman's hands by safety Bryan Cook for an incompletion
• Second and 10: Play-action screen to Taylor for a seven-yard gain
• Third and 3: Chiefs send a six-man pressure; linebacker Nick Bolton runs free through A-gap, Jones throws incomplete over the middle to Pittman

Third drive (5:45 4th quarter):

• First and 10: Jones drops back with a good pocket and looks toward Tyler Warren on an out-breaking route just past the first down marker. Defensive back Chamarri Conner passes off a vertical route from Pittman to Cook, then breaks on Jones' throw to Warren and collides with Tranquill, with both defenders nearly intercepting the pass.
• Second and 10: Warren runs a quick out to the flat, but Cook closes quickly from his perch at safety and forces an incompletion.
• Third and 10: Kansas City brings another blitz, which is picked up well by the Colts' protection. Jones picks out Pittman over the middle for a six-yard gain, leading to a punt.

Fourth drive (9:55 overtime):

• First and 10: Quick RPO throw – against a seven-man box with a slot blitzer – to Drew Ogletree for four yards
• Second and 6: Under center run to Taylor, who fights through contact for a gain of five
• Third and 1: Taylor dropped for a loss of two (more on these runs in thing No. 2), leading to a punt

On Monday, Steichen was asked about his play-calling decisions, namely in having running back Jonathan Taylor touch the ball on three of the Colts' final dozen plays.

"The three and outs obviously were unacceptable, and that's on me," Steichen said.

More specifically, Steichen pointed to the final drive of the fourth quarter – on which Jones threw on straight drop-backs (no play action or RPOs) three times – as an area he looked back on in the hours after the game.

"I think that last drive in the fourth quarter was the biggest one where he probably could've popped a run on first down," Steichen said. "You throw it on first down, now you're at second and 10, and then you throw it again. It's not third and 10, and you try to get a third and 10 against a team that brings pressure – obviously we were short there on the third down. So that last drive in the fourth quarter, I thought I could've done a better job for sure."

But something to consider here – the Colts had issues running the ball on first down leading up to the one time they did it here, which resulted in a loss of two yards.

2. The Colts' run game struggled on first down and in some key moments.

The Colts entered Week 12 averaging a league-high .116 EPA per play on first down rushing attempts, and their 5.6 yards per rush average on first downs was second in the NFL. Those numbers were built not necessarily on efficiency – the Colts' rushing success rate on first down was 23.4 percent, 18th in the NFL – but on explosiveness. Of the Colts' 128 first down rushing attempts heading into Sunday, 18 of them generated 10 or more yards (14.1 percent, third-best in NFL); seven of those gained 20 or more yards.

Against the Chiefs, running back Jonathan Taylor carried seven times on first down and gained 14 yards; he was tackled for a loss on three of those seven runs. Taylor's longest rush on first down was eight yards, which he hit on the first play of the game and then again just before the two-minute warning in the first half.

Meanwhile, entering the fourth quarter, Jones had completed six of eight passes for 47 yards on first down – not explosive, but efficient enough to keep the Colts consistently ahead of the chains.

Taylor, in the fourth quarter and overtime, was stuffed on two of his three rushing attempts.

"We had some linebacker run-throughs is what it looked like on a few of those," Steichen said. "We got to go back and look at those and get those cleaned up. And that starts with me."

After Zaire Franklin's forced fumble was recovered by cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. at the Colts' six-yard line, Taylor was dropped for a two-yard loss on first down when linebackers Drue Tranquill and Nick Bolton came flying into the backfield; on a third-and-one in overtime, Tranquill again flew into the backfield and dropped Taylor for a loss.

The last rush here wound up being the last time the Colts had the ball. They got into a shotgun set, believing the Chiefs might alert for a pass on third-and-short – prior to Week 12, the Colts had called 12 dropbacks versus 14 rushes on third-and-one and third-and-two plays this season. The inside zone run to Taylor was blown up by defensive tackle Chris Jones stunting inside, which opened a lane for Tranquill to fly downhill and tackle Taylor.

"Credit to those guys, they did a good job up front," Steichen said. "We didn't get to the second level. And credit them for making the play."

3. Charvarius Ward Sr. and Sauce Gardner had plenty of good moments in coverage.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes faced man coverage on 20 dropbacks, completing eight of 17 attempts for 112 yards with one sack and two scrambles on those plays. All but two of his completions against man coverage came in the fourth quarter and overtime.

But Mahomes completed six of 10 passes for 81 yards on 11 dropbacks against man coverage in the fourth quarter and overtime, with two extremely high-leverage completions in there.

The first came on a fourth and three with 3:18 left in regulation and the Colts leading by three. With the ball on the Colts' 43-yard line, Ward slipped as wide receiver Rashee Rice got out of his break for a horizontal drag route, and Mahomes picked him out – Rice made an impressive catch, as Mahomes threw high with pressure from Laiatu Latu in his face – for a gain of 19 yards.

Then, with 5:33 left in overtime and the Chiefs facing a third-and-seven from their own 24-yard line, Mahomes stepped up into a hit by blitzing safety Nick Cross and picked out wide receiver Xavier Worthy downfield with Ward trailing him for a gain of 31. Kansas City lined up Worthy as part of a three-man bunch with deep speed threat Tyquan Thornton and tight end Travis Kelce; Worthy and Thornton ran vertically right next to each other until about the 40-yard line, when Thornton broke outside on a corner route and Worthy broke inside on a post. Safety Rodney Thomas II was deep and went to cover the corner, where cornerback Sauce Gardner was in man coverage on Thornton.

"I could have made that play, but I didn't," Ward said. "... (The throw to) Rashee Rice, I kind of stumbled, and I think it was fourth down on that play too. So those two plays definitely can play a little bit better."

For the majority of Sunday's game, though, the Gardner-Ward pairing on the outside limited what Kansas City was able to do on offense. Mahomes completed 17 of 29 passes for 177 yards (6.1 yards/attempt) over the first three quarters, and there were several moments where he wasn't able to drive throws to his outside receivers because of the coverage Gardner and Ward had on those guys.

"I thought they played good, tight coverage," Steichen said. "They had some crossing routes on us, but besides that, I thought both those guys played at a really high level."

4. Germaine Pratt was all over the field.

Pratt set a new career high with 20 tackles, which tied him with former linebacker Pat Angerer (Sept. 25, 2011) for the most tackles by a Colts player since at least 1994. His eight run stops – a PFF stat that tracks plays representing a loss for the offense – were tied for the most in any game this season.

I had a chance to catch up with Pratt last week and chatted with him about a whirlwind five-month stretch – he was released by the Cincinnati Bengals in June and signed with the Las Vegas Raiders, then was released by the Raiders in October and quickly signed with the Colts. The Week 10 bye, then, came at a good time for Pratt, who started all five games in which he played with the Colts prior to it.

"It's been good for me, just getting my feet back under me," Pratt said. "Going from Vegas to here, I've been on three different teams this year, so just basically trying to get my feet settled, just trying to get more comfortable where I'm at, just trying to get myself back to myself."

Pratt, on Sunday, certainly looked like himself.

"I thought Pratt played a great game, got some tackles for a loss in the backfield," Steichen said. "He was phenomenal. He was flying around the whole day making plays. Credit to him, credit to the guys up front for creating those gaps for him to get through and make those tackles."

5. The Colts' special teams units were excellent.

If the Colts had won, this would've been more than a footnote. But the Colts' special teams units consistently put their offense and defense in advantageous positions on Sunday, with several key contributions from:

• Wide receiver Anthony Gould, who gained 21, 19 and nine yards on his three punt returns
• Punter Rigoberto Sanchez, who had five of his six punts downed inside the 16-yard line; the Colts' punt coverage unit held Kansas City to seven yards on four punt returns
• Cornerback Chris Lammons, who made two plays on kickoffs that forced Kansas City to begin first-half possessions at their 26- and 25-yard lines, respectively; the Chiefs' average starting field position on kickoffs was their own 25-yard line, third-lowest in Week 12
• Kicker Michael Badgley, who connected on both PATs and both of his short field goals

This success was nothing new for the Colts' special teams units in 2025. There's not a great way to measure them collectively against the rest of the league, but the Colts' team-wide special teams Pro Football Focus grade is tied for ninth-best in the NFL. The Colts lead the NFL in yards per kickoff return (29.0) and have allowed the eighth-lowest average yards per kickoff return (24.7); the Colts are also holding opponents to the third-lowest average yards per punt return (4.7)