Five Things Learned: Colts-Jaguars (2020, Week 17)

[Blue]

» TAYLOR'S MASTERPIECE: After a decorated career at Wisconsin, the Colts selected running back Jonathan Taylor in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft knowing he was capable of taking over games and playing like one of the top backs in football. And after an up-and-down start to his rookie season, Taylor has absolutely been on fire the last few weeks, a point no more evident than on Sunday, when he had one of the best rushing performances not only in Colts history, but in NFL history. Taylor had 30 carries for a single-game franchise-high 253 yards and two touchdowns; his 253 yards tied for the second most by a rookie in a single NFL game and are the ninth-most by any player in a single game in league history. Taylor's 45-yard touchdown run with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter sealed the game — and a playoff appearance — for the Colts, and he finished the regular season third in the NFL, and first among all rookies, with 1,169 rushing yards, as well as 11 rushing touchdowns, tying Marshall Faulk and Curtis Dickey for the most in franchise history by a rookie. "It just felt like he was running great and kind of had an idea coming in that we were going to do that, really with the idea of making sure – this is such a big game, an important game and he has been in beast mode, as we've said, so he's earned that right," Reich said of Taylor. "He certainly looked great today."


» WEATHER THE STORM: The Colts displayed a somewhat-familiar pattern in Sunday's game — and something they hope they can get ironed out by the time this Saturday's Wild Card Round matchup against the Bills gets underway. Indy had yet another fast start against the Jaguars, jumping out to a 17-0 lead by early into the second quarter, and extending that lead to 20-0 with 2:41 to go in the second half. But then the Jaguars get some momentum heading into halftime with their first touchdown of the game, cutting the lead to 20-7, and then the Colts' offense suddenly couldn't find much consistency throughout much of the second half, while the Indy defense seemed at times to be hanging on. The Jaguars cut the Colts' lead to 20-14 at the 6:32 mark of the third quarter and actually had several drives down the stretch where they could've taken the lead, but ultimately, Indy found the plays it needed in the final period on both sides of the ball, and Taylor's 45-yard touchdown run up the gut, and the two-point conversion pass from Philip Rivers to T.Y. Hilton that followed, finally put the game out of reach. Sunday's game had a similar pattern to the previous week's matchup on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which Indy jumped out to a 24-7 lead early into the third quarter before Pittsburgh came storming back with 21 unanswered points, handing the Colts a 28-24 loss. But this time, Reich's crew figured out how to get the job done and close the door on the Jaguars. "At this next level, there is no room for some of the inconsistencies that we've seen, even in the last two weeks like you're suggesting, where we come out and are hot in the first half and then the inconsistency of the second half," Reich said. "We know that it has to be addressed and we have to be better going on the road playing playoff football against really good teams. It's still a 60-minute game though and there is something to be said – you can come out and get on fire and then you stumble a little bit. You don't want to do that; you don't plan to do that. You plan on scoring every time you touch it; you plan on stopping them every time they touch it. But there is something to be said – like today, at the end of the day we scored 28 points. Am I happy with that? No, not really, I was hoping we'd score a lot more but usually that's enough to win a ballgame. We have to continue to fight to get more consistent, but overall, we have to the players and coaches to do that."