Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich says his side has been left with a "scar" after missing the playoffs following Sunday's shock 26-11 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Indianapolis needed only to beat a two-win Jaguars team to secure their place in the postseason but were humbled, allowing the Pittsburgh Steelers to clinch a playoffs spot.

Quarterback Carson Wentz was sacked six times in a game the Jaguars led the entire way, with the Colts having not won in Jacksonville since 2014.

The Colts finished the season with back-to-back defeats to slip to a 9-8 record and second in the AFC South behind the Conference-leading Tennessee Titans.

"It was hard to imagine after the Arizona game, we get to 9-6, we feel like we’re one of the two or three teams to beat, a team everybody’s talking about," Reich told reporters on Monday.

"When you think about how all this was going to end, certainly, no one including myself, really, ever thought it would end like it did the last two weeks.

"That’s something that can’t be undone. It’s part of our record. It’s part of my record. … It’s a scar."

Reich revealed that he met with team owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard for several hours after the Jaguars defeat.

“It was a good conversation, a supporting conversation, but also demanding and wanting answers, [with Irsay] wanting to hold us accountable,” Reich said.

He added: "‘We’re going to get better.' … We walked out of there saying, ‘We’ve got a lot of the right pieces in place.'"