EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Colts had an opportunity to play for a spot in the AFC playoffs next weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Instead, they allowed the New York Giants to score over 30 points for the first time since the 2022 season in a 45-33 defeat on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The loss eliminated the Colts from the playoffs.

"It's embarrassing. It's disappointing. We got flat-out beat," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "The performance we put out defensively, just beyond unacceptable. You can't play like that when you're planning on being a playoff team. So we ain't a playoff team."

Journeyman quarterback Drew Lock completed 17 of 23 passes for 309 yards with four passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, no interceptions and a near-perfect passer rating of 155.3. Rookie standout wide receiver Malik Nabers had seven catches for 171 yards with two touchdowns, the latter of which was a 59-yard back-breaker in the fourth quarter. Wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette had a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown to open the second half. And the Colts' offense squandered a few opportunities when they had little margin for error.

"Extremely disappointing outing," head coach Shane Steichen said.

"Embarrassed," cornerback Kenny Moore II said. "Just felt everything was in arm's reach until it wasn't. It's just indescribable, to be honest."

"It just sucks, sucks for everybody," center Ryan Kelly said. "It's not just on one person or one side of the ball, and we got opportunities in the red zone, too. Just didn't get it tone today. And as a team, collectively, just about as tough as it gets."

There's no intrigue as to where the Colts go from here in the 2024 regular season. They'll finish things out against the Jaguars on Sunday, pack their things up at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center a day or two after and then head home. The playoffs were absolutely in reach – a win here or a win there and this team might not just be in the dance, buyt they might be division champions, hosting a playoff game at Lucas Oil Stadium in two weeks.

"Potential just mean you ain't did it yet," Franklin said. "And the reality of the situation, we ain't did it."

Coaches and players did not feel as if they lacked the requisite urgency or effort in the days leading up to Sunday's game. But after the game, in dour press conferences and media scrums, those folks accepted that everyone had a part a loss that doesn't technically end the Colts' season – but ends their chances of reaching one of their biggest goals: Making the playoffs.

"I think the standard has to be raised," running back Jonathan Taylor said. "And we spoke about it, it's the playoffs have to be the standard. The teams that get in, year in and year out, that's their standard. That's the bottom floor, like listen, we got to get in. And they know it's tough, but they know, hey, we're going to fight, scratch and claw to make sure every year that is the standard that you uphold.

"And for us, 2020 was the last time that we got in, we've got to get in. You got to get in in order to establish that standard. Like, listen, this is the Indianapolis Colts' standard: It's (to be) in the playoffs. So it's going to take, individually, in the offseason, guys raising the level themselves. But guys, when you come together, you've got to find a way to take that individualism and put it together as a team, offense, defense, special teams, to go to that next level."

How the Colts will get to that level is a question better answered in the offseason, when the acute sting of Sunday's loss fades into a dull, lingering disappointment. For now, losing 45-33 to the Giants – a team that was in line to get the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft before Sunday – is what's consuming the thoughts of, collectively, the Colts.

"It's frustrating, especially when my first year (2020) we actually did make it and I just thought it was a lock – like I thought every year, hey, we're going to do this, and I quickly have been humbled," wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. "We just got to do something different. I don't know what that is, but something."