Ehlinger faces roller-coaster day in Colts’ starting debut

On Sunday, Sam Ehlinger gave the Indianapolis Colts both movement and hope.

It simply wasn’t good enough to win.

In his first NFL start, the second-year quarterback completed 17 of 23 passes for 201 yards, but with 3:38 left on the clock, he fell short by a half-yard on a third-down run. Coach Frank Reich punted instead of going for it from the Colts 34-yard line, and Washington took advantage by driving for a score with 22 seconds remaining and a 17-16 victory.

Ehlinger offered no apologies.

The offensive unit, he felt, “had a lot of opportunities, but we basically shot ourselves in the foot.” Two mistakes, a close call at the inch-yard line, and only three points are insufficient in this league. But we shown that we have explosive plays, and we need to continue to improve from here.

The Colts (3-4-1) occasionally appeared more effective than they had in the majority of their previous seven games.

They scored a field goal early in the second quarter to take a rare halfway lead, but by halftime they were down again — for the league’s longest current drought at 10 games.

Additionally, Ehlinger added a dimension that the previous starter, 37-year-old Matt Ryan, who was benched after committing a league-high 12 turnovers, did not.