The Jeff Saturday experiment suffered a colossal setback Sunday night.
The Indianapolis Colts allowed five turnovers and 33 fourth-quarter points in a humiliating 54-19 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Saturday is now 1-3 since surprisingly replacing Frank Reich as the Colts’ interim head coach.
Other coaches reportedly aren’t rooting for the former center to succeed.
NFL insider Jason La Canfora said the coaching community is “pretty disgusted” with how Colts owner Jim Irsay handled his midseason coaching change. He thinks they’ll “keep rubbing his nose in it every chance they get.”
Saturday began his coaching career with a 25-20 road win over the Las Vegas Raiders. However, the Colts have since lost three straight games.
Nick Sirianni didn’t hide his feelings about the situation. The head coach profanely dedicated the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 11 win over the Colts to Reich, who employed him as an offensive coordinator in Indianapolis.
He later called the victory “sweet,” expressing love for Reich and lamenting the missed opportunity to coach against his mentor.
The Colts went 3-5-1 before dismissing Reich. While they got annihilated Sunday, they only lost by one to the now 11-1 Eagles before suffering a 24-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Saturday hardly embarrassed himself before Sunday night, but there’s clearly resentment toward Irsay hiring someone with no prior NFL or college coaching experience.
The interim coach will try to make a case for the job over the team’s final four games after a Week 14 bye.