Jerod Mayo receives a painful lesson from Shane Steichen

But Steichen didn’t hesitate and kept the offense on the field as the Colts scored with 12 seconds left to cut their deficit to 24-23. Steichen didn’t come to Foxborough to play in overtime – he came to win. He showed trust in his players and put the ball in their hands, and they rewarded him with the win when quarterback Anthony Richardson ran 2 yards for the game-winning points.

It was the exclamation point on the most frustrating loss of the season for the Patriots, who fell to 3-10. They had their best offensive day of the season (a season-high 422 yards), held Richardson in check for most of the day and were in control of the game well into the fourth quarter. But in the end, it’s the same old problems the Patriots have struggled with all year – too many penalties, terrible execution in the red zone and a defense that allowed the Colts to rush 80 yards on 19 plays to score the game-winning touchdown. Mayo and the Patriots also missed a few chances to be aggressive again, settling for field goals when the Patriots clearly needed touchdowns.

Sunday’s game was the Patriots’ best chance to win the rest of the season. After next week’s bye, they finish with the Cardinals, the Chargers and two games against the Bills. They have a 3-14 season ahead of them.

The Patriots probably could have picked up a few more wins if Mayo had coached more aggressively. Steichen and the Colts showed them how it’s done.

▪ Mayo won its first challenge of the season by correctly challenging the spot on a Drake Maye first down in the third quarter. And it’s hard to blame Mayo for opting for a 54-yard field goal instead of making it on fourth-and-4 when the Patriots had lost 3 yards on the previous play.

But at the end of the second quarter, the Patriots weren’t nearly aggressive enough inside the red zone. After Mayes’ 29-yard pass to Kayshon Boutte brought them to the 11, the Patriots went handoff, handoff, sack to settle for a 25-yard field goal attempt that Joey Slye missed for the shortest miss the NFL left interception this season.

Mayo probably made the right decision by shooting on fourth and sixth. But Maye picked apart the Colts’ defense, and it’s inexplicable that the Patriots gave up the pass when they got into the red zone. This coaching staff needs to start viewing field goals as a failure and not a fallback option.

▪ The Patriots entered the game as the fourth-worst team inside the red zone (touchdowns at 47 percent), and their poor performance kept the Colts in the game much longer than necessary. The Patriots went 2 for 6 in the red zone, and without Antonio Gibson’s 11-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, the numbers would have looked even worse.

The first chance in the red zone was thwarted by a third-down sack; the second through consecutive holding penalties once the Patriots reached the 2-yard line; the third was negated by an unblocked defender on third-and-1, resulting in a 3-yard loss; another attempt was thwarted by an interception that bounced off Hunter Henry; and the Patriots had two touchdowns wiped out due to penalties, although they got one back.

The Patriots should spend a lot of extra time working on red zone execution during their bye week.

▪ We would like to thank offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt for taking lessons from the last few weeks and applying some creativity. On the first possession, he used Marcus Jones as a decoy, a shovel pass to Henry that gained 14 yards. He used a decent amount of play-action, utilizing the Wildcat formation near the goal line (one of the touchdowns was wiped out by a penalty) and even brought Jacoby Brissett in for a short-yard play, leading the Colts to believe he was going to sneak it (the Patriots converted on a handoff).

The lack of execution in the red zone is largely due to the players. Van Pelt had a good day finishing the offense.

Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].