Led by Anthony Richardson in his return to the starting lineup, the Indianapolis Colts snapped their three-game losing skid with a win in Week 11 over the Jets.
I’ve now had the chance to go back and rewatch the Colts’ performance and made note of my key observations as I watched the second time through.
– Terrific command and just control of the offense overall in this game from Anthony Richardson, but that fourth-quarter performance was particularly special. Trailing by eight and then by five, Richardson orchestrated two touchdown drives, completing 8-of-10 passes for 129 yards and two total touchdowns.
– I’ve discussed this already, but the gameplan we saw from Shane Steichen in this one was what I imagined we would see from the Colts all season with Richardson. It was a run-first approach with Jonathan Taylor heavily involved, as was Richardson, who had 10 carries of his own. Meanwhile, in the passing game, Steichen got Richardson on the move and in an early rhythm, dialing up a good mixture of downfield throws, along with underneath and crossing routes, which Richardson took advantage of.
– Jaylon Jones seemed to be everywhere. He had multiple pass breakups, was in on several tackles, including a few around the line of scrimmage, and even when he surrendered a completion, he was close by to limit the YAC.
– That was a rough sequence before half and coming out of it. With the defense dominating the first half, a Jets’ touchdown put them right back in it. Then to make matters worse, the Colts’ fumbled on their opening possession of the second half and the Jets scored two plays later. Just like that, New York had the lead.
– On the next Colts’ possession following that Jets’ touchdown, Richardson and Josh Downs connected on a huge 3rd-and-13 that ended up sparking a field goal drive instead of a quick punt and further compounding the miscues. Richardson and Downs also connected on a 3rd-and-9 on that drive as well, which included somehow completing the pass with a defensive lineman draped all over him.
– I wrote about this before the game in my key matchups, but Tanor Bortolini and Dalton Tucker faced a very difficult matchup against Javon Kinlaw, Quinnen Williams and the Jets interior defensive line, and it showed at times. Of the 11 pressures given up by the Colts, PFF credited Bortolini and Williams with eight of them.
– I’m going to keep saying this, but AD Mitchell needs more than 12 snaps. No one is expecting him to out-snap Michael Pittman, Josh Downs or Alec Pierce, and with the Colts heavy usage of just two or three receiver sets, finding those snaps can be challenging at times, but that’s up to Steichen to do. Mitchell brings added juice to the offense, and by bringing him along slowly, it’s only lengthening his learning curve. Ashton Dulin again out-snapped him.
– Something to watch moving forward is Taylor’s workload. He was out there for 63 of the 70 offensive snaps while Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson combined for just seven snaps. It’s a good thing that your best players are on the field, but at running back, I do wonder how sustainable that amount of snaps is if this is going to be a weekly occurrence. The Colts chose not to address their running back depth in the offseason.
– A really nice day for Downs and Dulin as returners. Downs averaged 12.3 yards per attempt on three punt attempts and Dulin had a 43-yard kick return. Also, while we are on the topic of special teams, shoutout to Matt Gay, who was 3-for-3 on field goals, including a 56 yarder.
– To a degree, Breece Hall is going to find success no matter what, but where he took advantage of the Colts’ defense in the second half was on rushes outside the tackle box. Once he got in space with a few blockers, there were a few chunk runs that ensued. Hall averaged almost 5.0 yards per rush on 16 carries.
– There was a stretch in the second half where the offense went quiet, and a lot of that started with struggles on first down. The Colts remained committed to the run game–which was a good thing–but it was tough sledding. As a team, Indianapolis averaged only 2.6 yards per rush. That, plus penalties, put the offense behind the sticks and in some obvious–and disadvantageous–passing situations.