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Opinion: Colts had Bucs beat until they forget they had Jonathan Taylor


INDIANAPOLIS – Looking back on this 38-31 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday, Colts coach Frank Reich knows what he’d do differently:

HE’D HAVE THROWN THE BALL EVEN MORE!

Sorry, am I yelling? Happens sometimes when things get weird and the Colts are red hot and dominating the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and DeflateGate mastermind Tom Brady is about to lose right here in Indianapolis, and then everything changes and the Colts aren’t hot anymore but they won’t run the ball despite having the best running back in the NFL. And then finally, after 26 consecutive passing plays, the Colts remember their best player wears No. 28 and they start handing Jonathan Taylor the ball and they score easily, but it’s too little, too late, and the Bucs win.

And then afterward, with reporters grilling Reich about that crazy stretch – seriously, 26 pass plays in a row? – he mulls it over and comes to a decision:

“If anything,” Reich’s deciding, “maybe we should have gotten more aggressive earlier, throwing.”

THAT’S WHAT HE SAID.

Sorry. That’s what he said.

On social media, here’s what you were saying as this crazy loss – this slow-motion car accident that everyone could see coming, but nobody could prevent – was unfolding:

RUN THE DAMN BALL.

That was you, thousands of you, on Twitter. Seriously, that phrase was trending on Twitter late in this game. Thousands of you were typing those four words, in all caps, because you were furious and you were shouting and you weren’t understanding what Frank Reich and Carson Wentz were thinking. That’s where I come in. This is what they were thinking:

“If anything,” Reich said, “we should have gotten more aggressive earlier, throwing.”

Wentz was thinking something equally ridiculous:

“It’s all about what the defense gives us,” Wentz declared afterward.

These are smart men, both of them.

HOW COULD THEY BE SO WRONG?

True, Carson Wentz was hot early

First, the disclaimers. Read this fast, OK, like it’s one of those car commercials where they’re practically promising to give you a car until the end, when they mumble 85 words nobody can understand. If you could slow it down, you’d hear what they were really saying: “Unless you’re buying this car with cash, or your credit is perfect, we just lied to you.”

Anyway, a disclaimer before we address the positions of Reich and Wentz. But let’s say it fast, because life’s too short to waste on stuff that doesn’t matter – like, what happens early in an NFL game that is decided late.

Disclaimer one, and say it fast: CarsonWentzWasVeryHotEarly.

Disclaimer two: TheBucsWantedToStopJonathanTaylor.

Disclaimer three: TheColtsWereWinning.

The Colts were about to take a 24-14 lead late in the first half. Carson Wentz was blazing hot, throwing for 197 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Also: blah blah blah. Because it doesn’t matter.

Because the Bucs offense is about to get hot. And the Colts offense is about to get cold. Only, nobody on the Colts sideline seems to know it, including the coach calling the plays. Neither does the guy ultimately responsible, quarterback Carson Wentz, who keeps receiving from Frank Reich what you call RPO’s – plays designed with a Run/Pass Option – and forgets about the R-word. He got all PO’d.

AND THEN SO DID WE.

True, Jonathan Taylor was cold early

OK, so the numbers:

On Jonathan Taylor’s first four carries, he gained a total of two yards. He received those carries over the Colts’ first three drives against a Bucs defense that loads the line of scrimmage more than any defense in the NFL. Seriously, there’s a stat for that – it’s called “loading the box” – and the Bucs load the box more than anyone. Against the Colts, featuring the mercury-hot running of Jonathan Taylor and the mercurial passing of Carson Wentz, the Bucs loaded the box even more.

It was smart football. Tampa Bay wanted the Colts to quit trying to run.

And the Colts, bless ‘em, gave Tampa Bay what it wanted.

But, more numbers:

Taylor got four more carries in the first half, and on those carries he gained 23 yards. That’s 5.8 yards per carry. That’s quite good. But Tampa Bay didn’t want to the Colts to run, and the Colts are just the nicest franchise you ever saw, so they gave the Bucs what they wanted. AND THEY WENT 21 MINUTES BETWEEN RUNNING PLAYS.

Well, they did. That was 26 consecutive passing plays, which featured one scramble of two yards, and one strip-sack for a lost fumble. On the other 24 plays, Wentz went 13-for-24 for 136 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. All told, for those 26 snaps, that’s two turnovers, one touchdown and 5.3 yards per play.

That’s dreadful.

So when Wentz says, “It’s all about what the defense gives us,” try not to shout when you think:

THEY WERE GIVING YOU LUMPS OF COAL, YOU DOOFUS, NOT AN XBOX!

On the sideline, with all these assistant coaches and analytics guys and quality control this and that, nobody was telling Reich that the Colts had passed the ball 10 consecutive times, then 15, then 20, then 25. I know, because I asked Reich after the game something like:

“Did anybody on the sideline tell you what was happening?”

And he said:

“Normally someone will say something to me,” he said. “Nothing was said to me during that stretch. … A reason why nobody was saying something was because a lot of the things we were calling were working against a really good defense. I think that’s probably why.”

Well, here’s the thing:

Somewhere along the way, all those passes stopped working. And nobody seemed to know it. Except for us in the press box and you watching on television and all those geniuses on Twitter. Except for all of us, nobody knew the Colts needed to run the damn ball.

But the Colts had this, and blew it

Thing is, the Colts really do have something here. They caused two more turnovers, upping their league lead to 27. Darius Leonard forced another fumble, his fifth of the season – his 10th turnover, total, in 12 games – on the same day strip-sack-master Robert Mathis was inducted into the Colts’ Ring of Honor. Cornerback/kick returner Isaiah Rodgers picked off a pass and returned a late kickoff 72 yards, giving the Colts two realistic but unsuccessful shots at the end zone to force overtime.

Wentz was hot early, and we all know how good Jonathan Taylor and that offensive line can be. Rookie defensive end Kwity Paye recorded his third sack in the last four games, and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner turned in another huge game despite being sidelined for several series with a knee injury.

The Colts had won four of five games to get back into the 2021 NFL playoff picture, and they should have won their two most recent losses, complete chokes against Baltimore and Tennessee. And they should have won Sunday, against a very good Tampa Bay team. Instead of 6-6, they could be 9-3 right now, riding a nine-game winning streak, the hottest team in the NFL bearing down on the No. 1 overall seed and home-field advantage for the postseason.

But.

With Tampa Bay asking the Colts to please not hand the ball to game-breaking Jonathan Taylor – "They were playing base defense against our sub offense too,” Reich said, “so trying to force us into throwing a little bit more” – and the Colts obliging, the Bucs scored 17 consecutive points to turn that 24-14 deficit into a 31-24 lead.

And then, hallelujah, the Colts stopped cowering in the face of Tampa Bay’s defense and remembered who they hell they are.

Crazily enough, this is what Reich had said earlier this week:

“Every week we want to establish the run,” he said. “Our identity is we want to run the ball.”

With 10:06 left in the game – after not running the ball the final minute of the second quarter, or any of the third quarter, or on their first drive of the fourth quarter – the Colts gave the ball to Jonathan Taylor. Can you believe that? Tampa Bay didn’t want the Colts to run it, and the Colts ran it anyway. The nerve!

Taylor gained 5 yards.

They gave it to him again. He gained 15 yards.

Then 5 more yards. Then 10. Then 15. You can’t make this up. The Colts drove 75 yards on 10 plays, with Taylor running eight times for 58 yards, for a 4-yard touchdown that came on (obviously) a run by Taylor with 3:29 left.

But the Bucs got the ball one more time, and the Bucs scored to win 38-31.

Afterward, Reich was saying: “We just didn’t produce early in the run game until the fourth quarter.”

True, the Colts’ run game produced nothing from late in the second quarter until the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Also true: The Colts didn’t run it once in that stretch. The fastest car in the world won’t go very far if you leave it in the garage, know what I’m saying?

The Colts don’t see it that way, apparently. Wentz thinks they were taking what the defense was giving them. Reich thinks they should have passed it more, not less.

I think that’s absurd. And I’m tired of shouting. The Colts are the only ones who need to hear this, and they’re not listening anyway.