The Colts squandered one of the best defensive efforts of the NFL season

“I know what its like to lose. To feel so desperately you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless.”

I’m sure Denico Autry had mixed emotions as he walked off the field on Sunday. He had just had his best game, by far, as a pro and it was also one of the more productive games you will ever see from any defensive lineman. Any! The Colts defense, due in no small part to Autry’s outstanding efforts, had been able to shut down the Jaguars offense, holding them to just six points for the game.

Unfortunately, Autry’s counterparts on the normally explosive Indianapolis’ offense were unable to put any points on the board, so Autry’s fantastic day was, for all intents and purposes, wasted in the loss.

Losing a game, however, does not disqualify one from being eligible for Hoss of The Week, and Autry’s play was simply too impactful to overlook.

Autry didn’t waste any time making his mark on Sunday. On the third play of Jacksonville’s first drive, the Jaguars lined up with two tight ends to their right side of the formation and one back in the backfield. That running back was their midseason trade acquisition, Carlos Hyde, helping to fill in for a suspended Leonard Fournette.

The Jags ran Hyde on sort of a belly play where the blocking upfront all went to the left, but Hyde went to the right to cut back behind the two tight ends blocking. The intent appeared to to cave in the left side of the Colts’ defensive line which would then leave Hyde one-on-one with left cornerback Pierre Desir and force him to try to make the tackle by himself.

Autry was the left three-technique for the Colts on the play. He ended up having to take on a double team by the Jaguars’ right guard and right tackle, AJ Cann and Jermey Parnell. That double team ended up morphing into a scoop block with Cann going up on a linebacker on the second level and Parnell cutting Autry off from getting inside.

Autry held is own against those the double team pretty well, but the ball still cut behind him and Hyde got up into the secondary. Not content to be a spectator, Autry hustled his ass off to get back into the play.

And you know what I say about those who hustle — Good things tend to come to them!

As Hyde was bouncing off Anthony Walker’s tackle attempt, Autry swooped in from behind and punched the football right out of Hyde’s clutches. The ball took a most fortunate bounce for the Colts, and Walker ended up falling right on top of it.

Walker’s recovery gave the Colts’ offense the ball at the Jacksonville 42-yard line, which could have been a huge moment in the game. That Indy offense had not scored less than 24 points in regulation since a week three loss to the Eagles. That includes the 29 they scored in a Week 10 win over Jacksonville that had folks questioning if maybe that Jags defense had fallen off. In fact, Luck hadn’t thrown fewer than three touchdowns in a game since a Week 3 loss. So, I would say it was reasonable to assume that they would likely be able to turn that prime field position into a scoring opportunity of some kind.

Yeah ...

Not only did the Colts offense not take advantage of the field position, three plays later Luck threw a pick right into triple coverage and gave the ball right back to the Jaguars.

But, no worries. Autry was here for a good time and a long time on Sunday. He made at least one big play in each quarter of the game to help keep the Colts in it the whole way through.

In the second quarter the Jaguars found themselves backed up on their own five yard line, and facing a third-and-6. Autry was again the left three-technique, but this time he was matched up one-on-one with McCann on a passing play.

Autry first came off the ball and tried to swat Cann’s outside hand with his outside hand and step outside of him with an arm over. Cann recovered enough to keep Autry from turning the corner on him, but in order to keep from getting beat outside, Cann had to turn his shoulders perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and give up all of his power. Autry took full advantage of him by getting his hands into Cann’s breastplate and pressing Cann right back into Cody Kessler’s lap.

Kessler felt the walls literally closing in around him so he tried to step up in the pocket. As he did, Autry fell back inside of Cann and was able to grab hold of Kessler. He ended up taking Kessler down for a loss of 2 yards which forced the Jags to punt from their own 3-yard line on the next play.

Once again Autry had made a big play that should have set up his Colts offense with good field position and another great opportunity to put some points on the board. As it happened Jacksonville’s punter, Logan Cooke, went all shank-o-potamus and his 37-yard clunker of a punt gave the Colts better field position than they had any right to hope for before the play.

The Colts started the next drive already on the Jaguars’ 40-yard line, but unfortunately for Autry and the rest of the team, this was just this was another prime scoring opportunity they ended up squandering by going four-and-out and and turning over the ball on downs.

This utter failure of a drive was highlighted by their decision to go for it on fourth down and rely on their tight end, Eric Ebron, to try to get 1 yard on an end around, rather putting the ball in the hands of their superstar quarterback who has been as hot as he’s ever been in his career over the last eight weeks or so and is currently second in the NFL in touchdown passes.

Yeah ...

Not to worry (yet), Autry was not done trying to save the day!

With just over 10 minutes left in the third quarter, the Jaguars were facing another third-and-3 from their own 35-yard line. This time the Colts defense was lined up in a funky formation up front to try to confuse the Jaguars and give the impression they were coming with a blitz. Autry was lined up as the nose tackle on center Tyler Shatley, shaded slightly to Shatley’s right hand.

On the snap, Autry tried to get into Shatley on a bull rush, but he was immediately triple teamed by Cann, Shatley, and left guard Patrick Omameh, as they slid the protection his way looking for a blitz. However, the Colts’ funky alignment had just been a ruse the whole time. They were really rushing just three guys initially, Autry inside and Jabaal Sheard and Tyquan Lewis off the edges. Eventually Darius Leonard, lined up as the middle linebacker, would come on a delayed blitz. That still only gave the Colts four pass rushers, so it technwasn’t really a blitz. However, Leonard’s late rush did eventually help to open things up for Autry inside.

Cann was helping on Autry, but he was also looking outside in anticipation of needing to help Parnell if Sheard came inside. Omameh also came over and chucked Autry initially, but he was also looking up at Leonard in anticipation of him rushing. The net effect when Sheard did come inside of Parnell with a spin move and Leonard did, in fact, come on the delayed rush was that Shatley went from receiving more help than he probably needed to not getting any help at all in the blink of an eye.

Once Shatley had been abandoned and left to his own devices, Autry was able to power right through his right shoulder to beat him. Autry was scott free to the quarterback. He accelerated and took down Kessler as he was trying to step up in the pocket to avoid Lewis’ rush off the left edge. Autry wrestled him down to the turf for a loss of 8 yards, and the Jaguars were once again forced to punt.

The Colts offense wouldn’t get great field position out of the deal this time around, but they would at least get the ball back down just three points and still very much in the game. I mean surely they could come back from being down a measly three points to a team that had been struggling to score all season, right?

Yeah ...

The Indy offense never crossed midfield on that drive and ended up having to punt, again.

Autry still wasn’t letting any of that get him down. He just kept grinding and making plays, trying to help his offense as best he could.

With just under seven minutes left in the game, down 6-0, the odds of the Colts staging a comeback were quickly diminishing. Autry had one more big play in him, however.

The Jags were facing yet another third-and-3 (yeah, I know, weird) at their own 40-yard line. If they could make a few first downs, the Jags could have (not could of!) possibly sealed the victory with another field goal. If the a six-point deficit was daunting, a nine point deficit would have been an absolute back breaker for Indy. It was of the utmost importance that the Colts stop them right then and there if they were going to have any chance to win.

Autry was once again the left three-technique. This time he came off the ball and chopped his feet after the snap, then stepped down hard inside of Cann. Cann countered by trying to use Autry’s momentum against him and slam him even further inside, and away from Kessler.

The problem for Cann was that Autry was never actually planning on staying inside, anyway, so when Cann threw all of his weight into trying to muscle Autry on by, Autry hit the brakes and clubbed Cann’s outside shoulder with his outside arm and ended up tossing Cann inside.

Autry ended up totally free of Cann and right in front of Kessler. With his offense sorely needing some assistance, as he was taking Kessler down, Autry managed to poke the ball out before they both hit the ground. Had he realized his success at separating the football from Kessler just a half a second quicker, Autry would have been able to snatch it up himself. That recovery would have really set up his offense with a great scoring opportunity.

As it was, however, Kessler was able to grab his fumble before Autry could. That recovery helped the Jaguars to avert a complete disaster that would have been positively Bortles-esque. Instead, the sack went for a loss of 6 yards. The Colts did eventually get the ball back after a punt on the next play, but it was at their own 27-yard line instead of somewhere around the Jags’ 32-yard line.

Ok, so it wasn’t the best situation, down six late in the game. But the Colts offense had been so hot coming into this game, and all they really needed was one play to score a touchdown and steal a victory from the jaws of defeat. Surely with that much time left in the game they would be able to ...

Yeah, not so much.

Dah well, can’t win them all.

But Autry certainly turned in his own, personal winning effort. You may have noticed that one commonality between all his plays that I highlighted was the hustle involved to make them. His incredible effort on Sunday allowed him to put up a ridiculous stat line of three sacks, two caused fumbles, a pressure, and seven (!) other tackles. The dude was everywhere all day and especially on third-and-3. On a day when his offense was struggling, he almost single-handedly helped keep his team in it. The Colts came up just a tad bit short when it was all said and done, but with his career day, Denico Autry still earned my Hoss Of The Week honors for Week 13 of the 2018 NFL season.