Colts set franchise speeding report behind Jonathan Taylor phenomenal efficiency

What a distinction every week makes, proper?

The Indianapolis Colts have been firing on all cylinders throughout Sunday’s 38-30 victory to safe the season sweep over the Tennessee Titans.

Tennessee (3-12) took its solely lead halfway via the primary body as soon as quarterback Mason Rudolph threw a 38-yard TD cross to receiver Calvin Ridley. The Colts responded with a season-high 38 straight factors, together with 5 consecutive scoring drives. Indy set a single-game franchise report with 335 crew speeding yards, engineered behind working again Jonathan Taylor’s phenomenal efficiency with a season-best 218 speeding yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries.

“It reveals the extent of belief that he has,” Taylor mentioned. “However that comes from the week of apply. Then after all in the end that comes from executing within the recreation. However the week of apply, executing within the recreation and him understanding, like, ‘Okay, these guys have put the work in. I see that they’re executing at a excessive degree. We’re going to roll with it’”

Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson retaliated with a 29-yard run to breach the pink zone. Three performs later, Kylen Granson motioned to the appropriate, then reversed course to dam alongside left guard Quenton Nelson and lead Richardson for his sixth speeding TD to tie it up, passing Andrew Luck to set a brand new franchise report for speeding TDs by a QB. Richardson accomplished 7-of-11 passes for 123 passing yards and added a career-high 70 speeding yards on 9 carries, averaging 7.8 yards per carry.

Indianapolis (7-8) dominated the trenches as Tennessee’s protection was as comfortable as present wrapping paper. One week after making maybe essentially the most vital mistake of his NFL profession, Taylor posted a profession day and broke free on a pair of explosive runs for 65 and a season-high 70-yards to ignite the second half. Halfway via the second quarter, Taylor broke unfastened for a 65-yard TD to provide the Colts a 14-7 lead, holding onto the soccer previous the tip zone and sprinting into the tunnel. Together with his sixth speeding TD, Taylor surpassed 1,000 speeding yards for the season for the third time in his five-year profession. It was the third-best efficiency in a single recreation from a Colts working again in franchise historical past.

“I feel the whole lot was form of clicking there and people are onerous to return by typically on this league, however the guys up entrance offensively have been simply rolling,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen mentioned. “I imply it was rolling. I imply we have been popping the large ones, and we have been shut on a couple of different ones too. So, we knew it was there and clearly we popped up there. So, it was good for our guys to bounce again the way in which they did after final week.”

Dealing with third-and-3 within the last minute of the primary half, Richardson linked with receiver Josh Downs on a bubble display, then Downs walked a tightrope and raced down the sidelines into the tip zone for a 27-yard landing to extend the result in 24-7 earlier than halftime. Downs led the Colts with three receptions for 61 receiving yards.

The Colts stymied the Titans speeding assault to only 65 speeding yards on 22 carries, 2.9 yards per carry. Indy’s protection collected three interceptions for the second consecutive week, together with two picks from cornerback Kenny Moore II, with the latter to seal the win on the ultimate play. Rudolph discovered Colts cornerback Samuel Womack III on consecutive performs, however ‘shutdown Sammy’ stepped out of bounds on the primary catch, then made a spotlight reel play on the very subsequent snap, making certain the ball doesn’t lie. The Titans finally stormed again to make issues fascinating with three TD drives within the last 18 minutes because the Colts basically let their foot off the fuel.

Indianapolis takes its second journey to MetLife Stadium subsequent Sunday to face the New York Giants (2-13).