For much of the night, the Sunday Night Football game between the Indianapolis Colts and Sacramento 49ers was limited offensively, thanks to a “bomb cyclone” in the Bay Area that led to pouring rain all game. One of the earliest highlights was a Carson Wentz shovel pass interception/fumble that turned into a big play for the 49ers, and through three quarters, the Colts had gained more yardage on pass interference calls than they had through the air. But in the fourth, they got a key touchdown off a Wentz throw to Michael Pittman Jr. (and off some staggeringly poor defense from the 49ers):
TO THE END ZONE!
The @Colts now lead 30-18 near the two-minute warning. #ForTheShoe
📺 NBC and @peacockTV pic.twitter.com/9JBQ8GmAyt
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) October 25, 2021
That’s a great catch by Pittman (who’s seen above celebrating), but it’s a remarkably poor effort from the 49ers’ defensive back there, who doesn’t even really go up for the ball or try to make a tackle. He just bounces off Pittman instead, allowing for an easy touchdown afterwards. And shortly after this, Indianapolis really put it out of range when San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw a pass directly to a defender:
"This had no chance whatsoever." pic.twitter.com/SdqWQ0Jtyb
— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) October 25, 2021
Yeah, that wasn’t great. And that made it easy for the Colts to hang on for a 30-18 win.
[NFL.com; photo from Robert Scheer/The Indianapolis Star, via USA Today Sports]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.