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Jonathan Taylor, Dynamic Backfield Can Carry Colts in Playoff Push

Indianapolis Colts' Jonathan Taylor (28) runs past New York Jets' Brandin Echols (26) for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

AJ Mast/Associated Press

The Indianapolis Colts entered Week 9 as a floundering franchise. Last week’s heartbreaking loss to the rival Titans dropped Indy to 3-5, three games back of Tennessee with two head-to-head losses.

A return trip to the postseason appeared…unlikely.

But a lot can change over the span of a few days in the NFL. On Monday, the AFC South was turned on its head when the Titans went from prohibitive division favorites to a team without its best player the rest of the way. On Thursday, the Colts pummeled an overmatched New York Jets team 45-30 to move back within a game of .500.

In a game where the title of best running back in the NFL was handed (at least temporarily) from Derrick Henry of the Titans to Jonathan Taylor of the Colts, Indy not only kept their season from coming completely off the rails but showed how they can get back in not only the race for a wild card spot but also keep the pressure on the reeling Titans in the division.

The Colts need to turn back the clock—and dial up the run game.

For all the struggles the Colts had while losing five of their first eight games, the play of Taylor had been a bright spot. Entering Week 9, Taylor was second in the NFL (behind Henry) in rushing yards with 649, second in yards after contact (404) and yards from scrimmage (914) and led the league with 6.4 scrimmage yards per touch.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

As ESPN’s Mike Wells wrote, former long-time Colts lineman Jeff Saturday was already willing to put Taylor’s name up there with arguably the best running back the franchise has ever had.

“I’m talking as an analyst and also a former player for the team — he is the best one since (Edgerrin James),” Jeff Saturday said. “I think what he provides is every play could go for a touchdown. Whether it’s in the screen game, a checkdown, giving it to him between the tackles or outside. Every play could potentially go the house.”

As it turns out, Saturday wasn’t kidding about the whole “score on any play” part.

PFF @PFF

JONATHAN TAYLOR CAN’T BE STOPPED
https://t.co/HgIJ03TyNI

That 78-yard touchdown run by Taylor blew the game wide open and marked the second time this season that the former Wisconsin star has scored from more than 75 yards out. Taylor has the two longest runs in the NFL this season.

For the game, Taylor piled up a ridiculous 172 rushing yards and two scores on just 19 carries. He added another 28 yards on two receptions. Backup running back Nyheim Hines got in on the fun too, adding 108 total yards on 10 touches with a 34-yard scoring scamper of his own.

All told, the Colts ran for 260 yards Thursday—the most yards any NFL team has amassed on the ground in a game this season. As a matter of fact, as the FOX broadcast of the game pointed out, the Colts had set a new season-high for rushing yards by a team with over two minutes left in the third quarter.

That’s a spicy meatball, that is.

After the game, Taylor gave the credit to his offensive line for giving him clear running lanes while speaking to Erin Andrews of FOX Sports.

“(The holes) were massive,” Taylor said. The O-line does a great job every single week of just studying film, preparing, working hard every single rep in practice in order to make this come to life on the field.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 04: Jonathan Taylor #28 of the Indianapolis Colts reacts during the second half at Lucas Oil Stadium against the New York Jets on November 04, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Granted, this explosion came against a Jets run defense that entered Week 9 ranked in the bottom half of the league. The offensive line in Indianapolis certainly deserves a ton of credit—Quenton Nelson and Co. opened up holes against the Jets that I could have run through.

But Taylor and the Colts run game was absolutely dominant Thursday. And when the team plays like that, Indy looks the part of a team whose postseason aspirations aren’t at all dead.

As Matthew VanTryon wrote in the Indy Star, during the Pat McAfee Show earlier this week, the former Colts punter did his best to sum up the maddening exercise that is watching Carson Wentz play quarterback in 2021.

“Every play is an emotional roller coaster,” he said. “I respect how good he is and tough he is. His energy is awesome. It’s hard to say bad things about Carson Wentz. But he could have 35 turnovers a game and I don’t think he’d know it. He just moves along like nothing happens. He’s a great player when he’s playing well. But as soon as he starts thinking, ‘This play could be the greatest play of all time,’ it’s a comedy of errors. … It’s a cardiac arrest.”

Wentz’s zero-yard pick-six in Week 8 against the Titans is the sort of thing that will give fans palpitations. But when the ground game is humming along, the Colts new quarterback doesn’t have to force throws or push the action. He can let the game come to him—in no small part because the team is left with manageable third downs.

Against the Jets, Wentz played an efficient game, completing 22 of 30 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. It marked the fourth time in the last five games that Wentz threw multiple touchdown passes without a pick.

The Colts are 3-1 in those games, and the loss came in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens.

There had already been talk of benching Wentz for the purposes of bolstering the future at the expense of the present. If the sixth-year quarterback plays 75 percent of the Colts offensive snaps in 2021, then the Philadelphia Eagles will be awarded Indy’s first-round pick in 2022. If he does not, then the Eagles get the Colts second-rounder.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 04: Carson Wentz #2 of the Indianapolis Colts looks to hand off to Jonathan Taylor #28 during the second half at Lucas Oil Stadium against the New York Jets on November 04, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

The Colts can’t (and won’t) worry about that right now. The focus needs to be on 2021, not 2022.

When the Colts play like they did in Week 9, you’re reminded that this is a team that won 11 games a year ago and gave the Bills all they could handle in the playoffs. That this is a team that possesses one of the NFL’s best offensive lines, a defense with talent at all three levels, and one of the best rushing attacks in the league.

Next week the Colts host a Jacksonville Jaguars team that may well be the worst in the NFL. Win there, and Indianapolis is 5-5 with seven to play and very much in the hunt for a wild card spot.

Never mind that Tennessee is probably going to drift back toward the pack after losing Henry. They just are. And it will probably start Sunday night against a one-loss Los Angeles Rams team.

Indy’s schedule is pretty rough—after the Jaguars the Colts face the Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and post-bye dates with the New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders await.

But the Colts have quietly peeled off four wins in six games since starting the season 0-3. Wentz is settling in as the team’s quarterback to the tune of 12 touchdowns against two interceptions the past five contests. And with Henry’s season over, it’s Taylor who is the best active running back in the National Football League.

So, before anyone in Indianapolis starts calculating Wentz’s snap counts, they need to take into consideration that the Colts are by no means out of it yet.

They can ride Jonathan Taylor and the ground game all the way to a playoff spot.

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