The Sports Xchange

The level of tension and frustration for the Indianapolis Colts may be reaching a boiling point after Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints dropped the team’s record to 3-4.

According to the Indianapolis Star, owner Jim Irsay and general manager Ryan Grigson had a “heated conversation” after the 27-21 loss, the Colts’ second straight.

Specifics were not detailed in the report, but the pressure from Irsay seems obvious after another embarrassing performance, including the Colts being down 20-0 at halftime and 27-0 into the third quarter.

The Colts were considered to be title contenders entering the 2015 season, a year after playing in the AFC Championship Game.

Head coach Chuck Pagano has been on the hot seat this season and it intensified after the coach’s fake punt fiasco in the third quarter the previous week against the New England Patriots.

Quarterback Andrew Luck, through five appearances, has totaled 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Luck, in his fourth NFL season, started Sunday’s game with five straight incompletions and he and Colts’ offense left to a round of boos from the home fans at halftime.

“The first half was unacceptable,” Pagano said after the game. “It’s hard enough to win football games when you don’t shoot yourself in the foot and you’re not going to win many football games in the National Football League when you turn the ball over and you have penalties and you have miscues and you have the errors that happened with special teams, and inability at times to stop the run and we couldn’t run it.”

Luck, who was 9 of 19 for 79 yards and two interceptions in the first half, finally got untracked in the third quarter, throwing 87-yard and 46-yard touchdown passes to wide receiver T.Y. Hilton to slice the deficit to 13 points entering the final 15 minutes. Luck finished 23-of-44 passing for 333 yards and three touchdowns.

“Egregious turnovers, especially the one at the end of the half,” Luck said of the interception in the end zone that killed the Colts’ first scoring chance. “It’s really bad football.”