Colts Make Too Many Second Half Mistakes and Give Chiefs Their Second Win

The game Sunday was a tale of two halves.  The Colts did everything right in the first half and nothing right in the second.

The result? A 28-24 loss to drop the Colts to 0-5.

Don't pin this on the absence of Peyton Manning either.

Blame a horrible secondary most notably the worst corner in the league Jacob Lacey.

How many pass attempts going his way does it take for him to notice he needs to adjust.  Credit the Chiefs for noticing his inability to play the game.

The Chiefs came out in the second half and went at Lacey strong. 

On the first possession alone he made three mistakes.  He played over 10-yards off Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe and gave a quick slant for a first down twice on third down plays.  The other mistake was a big run by Thomas Jones that was negated by a hold, but Lacey brought him down by his facemask and the penalties were off set.

On the second possession of the second half Lacey got beat on a quick slant once again due to his inability to play tight coverage and the drive resulted in a touchdown circus catch by Dwayne Bowe his second of the day.  He caught the pass on Lacey's horrible coverage that was even was called for a pass interference.

On the third possession they went at Lacey again.  If it wasn't for Matt Cassel's intentional grounding who knows where that drive would have led.

On the fourth Chiefs possession of the second half they inserted the dagger.

Lacey was beat once again and was called for his second pass interference penalty of the half.  The other corner Jerraud Powers went out due to an injury so rookie Chris Rucker came in.  He got beat on the very next play by Steve Breaston for an easy touchdown that gave the Chiefs the 28-24 deciding touchdown.

That's why you blame Jacob Lacey for this loss.  There's absolutely no reason you jump up on a bad Chiefs team 17-0 and allow them to tie the biggest comeback in franchise history on your home field.

The offense didn't do much better in the second half either.

After scoring on four of their six first half possessions, the Colts were forced to punt three times and were stopped on a fourth down conversion.  Two of those punts were three in outs.

The fourth down try was originally going to be a punt, but on the punt a Chiefs player lined up in the neutral zone.  Head Coach Jim Caldwell already was booed by the Colts faithful for wanting to punt in the first place decided to send the offense out to try and capitalize on the Chiefs penalty.

The result was an incomplete pass attempt to Anthony Gonzalez.

In Gonzalez' defense he was interfered with by John McGraw on the Chiefs.  The refs did a bad job of noticing that, but that wasn't the deciding factor.

Curtis Painter played great, but didn't have any help from his receivers in the second half most notably tight end Dallas Clark who dropped three passes today.

Painter was 15 for 27 on the day for 277 yards and two touchdowns.  He did all he was asked and didn't turn the ball over.

In the first half Painter was 12 for 17 with 237 yards with both of his touchdowns coming then.

He was painting a masterpiece.  He connected with receiver Pierre Garcon four times for 119 yards and two beautiful touchdowns.  One on the first possession in which Painter went 5 for 5 with 66 yards, with the drive ended on a nice bubble screen pass to Garcon for a two-yard touchdown.  The drive lasted 7:24 seconds, which was the longest drive of the Colts season.

The second touchdown to Garcon came on the first play of the Colts fourth first half possession.  Painter did a beautiful pump fake and set up Garcon for a 67-yard touchdown strike.  Adam Vinatieri sandwiched a 53-yard field goal in there and the Colts led 17-0 after the touchdown. 

Reggie Wayne added four more catches of his own for 77 yards in the half.

The run game was working as well in the first half.

The Colts ran 34 first half plays and it was split 50/50 with 17 runs and 17 pass attempts.  Donald Brown even played well with 3 attempts and 22 yards in the first half.  He ended up being the Colts leading rusher with 8 carries for 38 yards.  That was all due to Colts starting running back Joseph Addai going out in the second possession of the game with a hamstring injury, in which he never returned.

Rookie Delone Carter had a big first half in getting 8 carries for 14 yards and scoring his first career touchdown on the Colts final possession of the first half. 

That was the last time the Colts would light up the scoreboard.

The defense played well too in the half.

The Chiefs had to punt on their first four possessions with three of those being three and outs.  The Chiefs did scored on their final two first half possessions though.

Cassel hit Dwayne Bowe for a 41-yard strike.  That was the result of defensive back Terrance Johnson playing too far off of Bowe and Bowe beat him on the slant.

The other touchdown was Steve Breaston beat weak coverage once again for a 16-yard touchdown reception.

The Colts still led at half 24-14.  The rest is history.

Matt Cassel had a great day at the expense of the Colts horrible coverage.  He was 21 for 29 with 257 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Running back Jackie Battle had a career day with 19 carries and 119 yards rushing.

Dwayne Bowe led the day obviously receiving for the Chiefs with seven receptions and 128 yards with two touchdowns.

Eight Chiefs receivers caught at least one pass today.

The Colts will take their 0-5 record to Cincinnati next week in the first game of a three game road trip.  They play at New Orleans on Sunday Night football in two weeks with a trip to division rival Tennessee to close out the road trip.

If the Colts can't win against the Bengals, a team they got their lone preseason win against they could very well be 0-8 when they return home to play the Atlanta Falcons on November 6th.

If they don't fix the secondary and the offensive play calling they can be in bad shape.