In the highlights of yesterday’s Indianapolis Colts’ 28–25 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, it looked like just another great day for Peyton Manning. And it was that: 288 yards and four touchdowns. But what the replays of Manning’s TD passes didn’t show was how close the Jaguars are to being one of the NFL’s elite teams and how vulnerable the Colts have become.

Once again, Manning was great, especially in the first half when the Colts built up a 21–7 lead. This time, though, with starting offensive tackle Ryan Diem and able backup Daniel Federkeil out with injuries, the Colts no longer have the, well, horses to call their shots up front. With a two TD lead, Indianapolis expected to watch running back Joseph Addai chew up yardage and the clock for most of the second half, but the Colts’ running game never got started. Addai had a terrible day, running for just 67 yards on 21 carries, stopped seven times either in back of or right at the line of scrimmage, including four tries in the second half on third-and-short. Repeatedly faced with third-and-longs they hadn’t anticipated, the Colts had to keep relying on Manning to bail them out; on one play, an ugly four-yard scramble for a first down, Tony Dungy and his staff were wincing at the possibility of a season-ending injury for their irreplaceable quarterback.

With the loss, the Jags are now 8–4 and probably won’t win anything this season, but they looked great in the second half against the Colts, outscoring them 18–7 and, for the game, getting more first downs (27–19) and more yards (411–342). Jacksonville QB David Garrard once again proved that he is on the verge of greatness, throwing 20 of his 29 passes in the second half for 200 of his 257 yards and two TDs. If head coach Jack Del Rio had turned him loose sooner, Jacksonville might have pulled off the biggest upset of the day.

But how big an upset, really, would it have been? Since stalling in the fourth quarter against New England on November 9, the Colts have lost to San Diego 21–23, barely scraped by a weak Kansas City team 13–10, and struggled for three quarters before finally putting down an abysmal Atlanta team 31–13.

The Jaguars, who outrushed the Colts by an eye-opening 105 yards, could easily have won if any of three key challenge calls had gone their way. Though the Jags’ offensive line allowed three sacks on Garrard, they gave up none late in the game when they were mounting their comeback charge. Without pass rusher Dwight Freeney, the Colts’ defense is looking more and more ordinary, especially in the fourth quarters of important games. Indianapolis lately is getting by on an excess of Peyton Manning and the fumes of their early season success.

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I know the Philadelphia Eagles have had a lot of rotten luck this season, and I know Andy Reid has got a lot on his mind with all those off-the-field family problems. But does that excuse his inexplicably dumb play calls in the closing minutes of the last two Eagles games? On November 25, playing heroically against New England at Foxboro, the Eagles had the Patriots back on their heels in the final minute when, with the ball on the New England 32, on first down Reid called for a deep end zone pass, which was overthrown by A.J. Feeley and intercepted.

Feeley had been ripping the Patriots’ secondary all afternoon — more effectively, in fact, than Peyton Manning did — by using New England’s tactic against them: wide receivers over the middle under the coverage. With the game on the line, Reid suddenly decided to see if Feeley, whose entry in the yellow pages is under “Career Backup QB,” had suddenly turned into Dan Marino.

In yesterday’s game against Seattle, Reid made a smart call. With little more than two minutes to play and his team down 28–24, just as they were against New England, Reid elected to punt on fourth-and-six at midfield. Some coaches would have rolled the dice and gone for it, but Reid kept his head: (He had three timeouts left if his defense held the Seahawks and Brian Westbrook to return the punt.) The strategy worked, and Westbrook, on a brilliant runback, put the ball on Seattle’s 14 with about 30 seconds on the clock and no timeouts left. Feeley proceeded to throw two passes short of the end zone and, on third down, had another pass short of the goal line picked off.

How you cannot take at least one shot at the end zone in a situation like that is baffling. The calls earned Reid a chorus of boos from frustrated Eagles fans, and as I write this, I’ve already heard two TV commentators rip the crowd for not “appreciating the tough circumstances Reid is in.” Look, there are always legitimate reasons for taking potshots at Philadelphia fans, but this isn’t one of them. Fans have a rightful cause for booing a coach who makes decisions this bad, and if Reid made them because he’s distracted, he might want to consider taking a leave and handing things over to an assistant until his family problems go away.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”