Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr. on last-second drop: 'I'm feeling the weight of that'
INDIANAPOLIS - Michael Pittman Jr. still isn't over the end of Sunday's loss to the Commanders. He can still feel the ball slipping through his hands.
The Colts had just gone down 17-16 after Terry McLaurin ripped a ball out of Stephon Gilmore's hands and Taylor Heinicke plowed into the end zone. Only 22 seconds remained, but the Colts needed just a field goal to win in Sam Ehlinger's first career start. And Ehlinger delivered arguably his best throw of the day on a deep crosser to Pittman Jr., but the Colts' No. 1 receiver dropped the pass.
The game ended with a loss a few plays later, and Pittman Jr. bolted home.
"I let my emotions get the better of me for most of that game," Pittman Jr. said Wednesday. "That's what happens when you get emotional. You're not really playing like yourself. You don't have the same type of focus. That's what happened. It's a pass that I should have caught. I take responsibility for that last week and then the Tennessee week (due to a fumble). Both of those games fall on me.
"Maybe things around here would be different today if I make that catch. I'm feeling the weight of that."
Change has come to the Colts in the past two weeks in ways nobody saw coming. A week before Monday, the team announced it was benching Matt Ryan, the 2016 MVP it sold to players as their new leader and starter for two seasons. Then on Tuesday this week, following another game where the offense failed to score 20 points, the Colts fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady.
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The Ryan benching caught the locker room by surprise. It required an adjustment to a new offense for Ehlinger, a sixth-round pick in his second season whom teammates love but who wins more with his legs. In practice, Pittman Jr. started catching passes from him for the first time more than a year.
After completing 75 total passes the previous two weeks with Ryan, the Colts asked Ehlinger to throw against Washington just 23 times, and he completed 17. They traded passes for run plays that attacked the perimeter, challenging receivers to block and run routes to create leverage.
Pittman Jr. said he didn't attack those plays with the focus and detail he so often brings to practices and games. He caught seven of nine targets for 53 yards, but the most explosive play would have been the one that slipped through his fingers.
"The ball is going to come to you when you least expect it and you've got to make the play, which I didn't," Pittman Jr. said. "I've got to wear that for the next week or so.
"We've had a lot of change the past couple weeks, and I just need to find a way to roll with it. Don't panic. Try not to get frustrated. And keep playing ball."
Pittman Jr. is as hard on himself publicly as any player on the Colts. Still just 25 years old, he wants to be the leader of a young receiver room and an undisputed No. 1 option in a passing league. For the most part, his numbers in his third season back that up, as he has 51 catches for 528 yards, putting him on pace for a second straight 1,000-yard campaign. But he's scored just one touchdown.
He had a chance at another Sunday, when he caught a touch pass and turned the corner but was slammed down inside the 1-yard line, and the Colts settled for a field goal. Missed opportunities shine in a struggling offense, so moments like that one and the fumble he lost the previous week against the Titans with 3:28 remaining in the game are eating at him.
Pittman Jr. grew up chasing the image of his father, Michael Pittman Sr., who played 11 years as an NFL running back and won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers. When he grew to be 6-foot-5, the younger Pittman decided he wanted to play like a running back out wide. He loves to barrel over defenders and use his size to bully them to the ball.
It's created some highlight-reel moments and has spread to players like Alec Pierce. It's also created an internal pressure.
“I always told him, ‘Son, don’t be that arrogant, knucklehead kid who puts your teammates down because you’re good," Pittman Sr. said. "Be that kid who uplifts those guys who don’t have the confidence you have. Make them feel important and a part of the team. In the end, they’ll thank you for that.’”
Pittman Jr. is working through changes nobody saw coming. He knows he must use these lessons to build something new in himself.
"Sometimes, the game plan is going to have to get away from me to win the game," he said. "We have other great players like Parris Campbell, Alec Pierce and JT (Jonathan Taylor)."
"It doesn't always have to be Michael Pittman. When it is, I have to make those plays."
Contact Colts insider Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Michael Pittman Jr. has to grow from late drop vs. Commanders
