Doyel: Pointing fingers at clueless T.Y. Hilton and the hopeless Colts

• Colts at Bengals, 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS

INDIANAPOLIS – This is how it happens. This is how it starts. After another humiliating game for the Indianapolis Colts, this one a 27-0 loss on Sunday to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the losers’ prima donna receiver decided to point a finger. Not like T.Y. Hilton has been using his fingers for much of anything else these days. A week after catching one pass at Tennessee, and less than an hour after catching two against the Jaguars, Hilton looked around the locker room — after he stopped giggling with the receivers in his area, the only noise in an otherwise silent room — and blamed this loss on the offensive line.

“We (were) winning our matchups,” Hilton said, sticking up for his fellow receivers by throwing another position group under the bus. “The O-line just got to play better.”

Hey, he’s not wrong. Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett was sacked 10 times, an Indianapolis Colts record. The O-line does have to play better. But what, Hilton was asked, can the Colts’ receivers do to make things easier for Brissett?

►COUNT 'EM UP: All the Colts' issues enumerated

►NOW WHAT?: Where can Pagano turn from here? 

“As far as receiving, nothing can change,” he said. “We got to take some pride up front and block for him. What if we put them (the offensive linemen) back there and take those hits?”

Hear that noise? It’s the wheels coming off this hapless, leaderless, Andrew Luck-less team.

The Colts now have a rebellion in their midst, a rebellion led by the most likely source in the room, the me-first receiver who wears his name on his clothes and jewelry and backpack and celebrates touchdowns and first downs in games already lost. On the bright side, Hilton isn’t much of a leader. It’s possibly a rebellion of one player, two players max — Hilton and his mini-me, fellow receiver Donte Moncrief, though in Moncrief’s defense he didn’t attack the offensive line after the game. He said: “The (Jacksonville) defense just beat us, period.”

To be clear, although he’s the wrong guy to point fingers, Hilton is justified in being unhappy. He’s playing on one of the worst teams in the NFL, a team going the wrong direction, a team whose problems of talent and coaching and even medical care were on display during a single play late in the first half.

The play: The Jaguars have the ball at their 21. It’s third-and-8, an obvious passing down. The play begins with Colts defensive coordinator Ted Monachino calling for zone pass coverage, even though the Colts cannot play zone coverage. Why would he call for that coverage? Because Monachino doesn’t know what he’s doing. Jags receiver Allen Hurns, who went undrafted in 2014 because he’s slow, is running wide open across the middle of the field because of course he is. Jags quarterback Blake Bortles, given time to throw — because of course he was — hits Hurns in stride.

►THE END: This is the game that ended the Colts' season

►SACKONSVILLE: Jaguars get to Brissett 10 times

Now Hurns is running toward the sideline, but he can’t get there. He’s slow, remember. Two Colts defensive backs, safety Darius Butler and cornerback Nate Hairston, converge on Hurns. They miss the tackle. They hit each other. Hurns turns upfield.

Now Hurns has the sideline, only he can’t get away from the Colts’ fastest defender, rookie safety Malik Hooker, who shoves Hurns just as he — Hooker — is being hit from the side by an oncoming Jags blocker. Hurns goes out of bounds after a 50-yard gain. Hooker is writhing in pain behind him, curled in a fetal position around his right knee as the Jags medical staff rushes to him. Eventually the cart is dispatched from the Colts sideline, because this looks serious. The cart gets to Hooker and then … turns around and drives away without him.

Because the Colts can’t even tend to their 2017 first-round pick the right way.

Hooker limps all the way across the field — from one sideline to the other — where Colts medical personnel are talking to him … while he stands about 5 feet from a bench. Hooker stands there for four plays before being led by foot to the locker room. He limps along, never to return. The cart is nearby, as useless on this day as a Colts defense that allowed the Jaguars to produce 518 yards of offense.

Hooker limping into the tunnel is an ugly sight on such a beautiful fall day, 72 degrees and blue skies somewhere above a roof that remained closed all game. Apparently there was a small chance of rain on Sunday. Taxpayers paid for this stadium, then paid extra for a roof that almost never opens. What does Jim Irsay do all day long, if he can’t even get the weather report right? He counts his money, which used to be your money.

►FIRE HIM!: Fans howl as Colts get blown out

Someday Irsay will need to open his wallet and take out his money, which used to be your money, to buy out coach Chuck Pagano and the rest of that awful coaching staff. The noise is growing for Irsay to fire Pagano in-season, as in right now, and while that makes sense from one standpoint — Pagano is horrible as a head coach — it doesn’t seem workable. Who replaces Pagano? Who on the worst coaching staff in football deserves to be put in charge of this team, lost cause it may be, for the final nine games?

Offensive line coach Joe Philbin once coached the Miami Dolphins. His O-line just gave up an Indianapolis Colts-record 10 sacks, then was called out by Hilton. Promote him?

Offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski once coached the Cleveland Browns. He runs the offense that just contributed to the Colts’ first regular-season shutout since 1993. And he’s the genius who used a timeout before a fourth-and-2 play to dig deep into his playbook for … a quarterback sneak. Behind an O-line that was dominated all game. Of course Brissett didn’t gain 2 yards. He didn’t gain 1 yard, either. Promote Chud?

The defensive coordinator is Monachino. Let’s move on.

I could go down the line — the best thing about quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer is his last name — but will stop there. Pagano has put together an incompetent staff. That could be the only thing that saves him.

New General Manager Chris Ballard has done very little to help the situation, either. He completely turned over the defense — 11 new starters from last year’s opener to this one, though Vontae Davis’ return really means 10 new starters — and look what happened on Sunday. Jacksonville, playing with Bortles but without its two best offensive players (running back Leonard Fournette, left tackle Cam Robinson), gained 518 yards.

►BLOG: Hilton points at the offensive line

Ballard drafted eight players in April, and just three have been remotely successful. Hooker was a good pick. Fourth-round running back Marlon Mack has shown flashes of incompetence (fumbles and dropped passes and poor pass protection) but also flashes of speedy brilliance. Oh, and fifth-round cornerback Nate Hairston might be decent. Might be. And he’s the third-best pick of the bunch.

Second-round cornerback Quincy Wilson can’t even get activated on game day, unable to beat out the army of undrafted free agents — most of whom play like undrafted free agents — ahead of him. Third-round outside linebacker Tarell Basham can’t get on the field except in blowouts, which means we’ve seen enough of him this season to know he’s no good. Fourth-round defensive lineman Grover Stewart rarely plays. Same for fifth-round linebacker Anthony Walker, who couldn’t stay healthy even if he were good enough to play. Which he’s not.

And then there’s fourth-round offensive tackle Zach Banner, who was released in the preseason, unable to win a roster spot. And you saw how bad the offensive linemen — the ones Banner couldn’t beat out — played on Sunday.

If you missed it, ask T.Y. Hilton. He has all the answers. Not many catches and absolutely no self-awareness or clue. But all the answers.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.