In a back-and-forth game with the Patriots, the Indianapolis Colts were able to lean heavily on their run game to help them escape New England with a much-needed win.
Coming into this matchup, the Colts’ run game had been struggling, particularly between the tackles, over the last month.
Since Week 9 against Minnesota, if we take away Jonathan Taylor’s 58-yard run against Buffalo, he was averaging only 2.9 yards per carry during that four-game stretch.
However, Sunday in New England was a different story and outcome for Indianapolis. Shane Steichen leaned heavily on Taylor and Anthony Richardson in the run game, with the Colts carrying the ball a total of 34 times for 144 yards. On the flip side, Richardson would only pass the ball 24 times.
With Josh Downs out, we saw our share of two tight end sets, and with those more bunched formations, Steichen utilized pre-snap movement to help shift and create some natural running lanes. Not to mention that as the numbers above illustrate, Richardson was again getting the ball on designed touches.
In addition to the play-calls and the gameplan, Indianapolis would also make a change at right guard that seemed to pay dividends. After rookie Dalton Tucker would struggle mightily in recent weeks, the Colts started veteran Mark Glowinski at right guard, who they elevated from the practice squad for this game.
Even with an inconsistent passing game in this contest, the success on the ground provided the Colts’ offense with some needed stability, allowing them to string together multiple long scoring drives, including on their game-winning possession where Indianapolis continued to utilize the run game even as the clock neared 0:00.
When the run game is working, there is a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the offense when regularly playing from short down-and-distance situations. This success helped facilitate the efficiency that we saw from the Colts on third downs–an area they’ve struggled in this season. Indianapolis was also an efficient 3-for-4 in the red zone as well.
On the flip side, oftentimes over the last month when we saw this Colts’ offense sputter, a contributing factor to those struggles were issues on early downs–frequently in the run game–that left Indianapolis behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations.
Coming into the game, the Patriots were surrendering 4.3 yards per rush, which ranked 12th in the NFL. From the play calls to the execution, particularly along the offensive line, the Colts needed this performance, and looking ahead, they’ll need it to be a catalyst going into the remaining weeks.
As we saw on Sunday, a reliable run game can provide the offense with something to lean on and make up for some issues that may be experienced in the passing game.
Also of note, the Colts will hopefully be getting healthier along the offensive line coming out of the upcoming bye week with Braden Smith and Ryan Kelly potentially returning at that time.