Week 11 was, statistically, one of the least-efficient games of Jonathan Taylor's career. He carried 24 times for 57 yards, good for an average of 2.4 yards per carry – the second-lowest average he had in a game with at least 20 rushing attempts.
But there's more to what Taylor did against a New York Jets team determined to stop him than the box score might show.
First: Taylor, despite 11 of his 17 carries after the first quarter gaining two or fewer yards, stayed disciplined with the ball in his hands. He didn't press and try to create a big play out of nothing – the sort of thing that can get running backs, and by extension their offenses, into trouble.
"You don't want to force anything — that's the biggest thing," running backs coach DeAndre Smith said. "Usually when you do, that might cause a fumble or cause a penalty because you're not where you're supposed to be. I haven't seen that with him since I've been here, never really had to talk to him about hey, don't do too much. He just kind of sticks with it and sticks with it, and I think he believes that at any point in time he's gonna break one."
The Colts went into Week 11 planning to heavily lean on Taylor and their ground game. While Taylor did not find much success, he avoided catastrophic, drive-killing or drive-ending plays, which often are the product of trying to do too much, as Smith said. That allowed quarterback Anthony Richardson to find a rhythm, especially off play-action as the game went on.
"(In your) younger years, especially college, and then just first coming in the league, you want to just be the guy to make a play, make a spark," Taylor said. "And yes, you want to do that, but you've got to understand you kind of have parameters, guidelines like, 'Hey, don't just go AWOL (or) go rogue on a play,' because if you do, you better be right. But other than that, it's just understanding the scheme, understanding the task at hand and just understanding that it's a four-quarter game."
Notably, in the fourth quarter – when Richardson made several key throws to push the Colts to a comeback win – he dropped back to pass after play-action six times against four straight dropbacks. Taylor understood that head coach Shane Steichen's commitment to the run game would, eventually, pay off for the Colts' offense whether he was touching the ball or not.
"A lot of teams try to have teams shy away from it so that they can kind of change their scheme, their plan, what they're doing," Taylor said. "But for us staying committed and being able to stay true to that, it forces them to stay true and saying, 'Okay, well these guys are going to stick with it.' So, just being able to keep that mindset, keep working, keep working, and eventually, those big runs will come."
While those big runs didn't come against the Jets, Taylor found another way to impact the game: Blocking for Richardson.
On Richardson's first touchdown run, Taylor acted as a lead blocker after the quarterback faked a jet sweep handoff to wide receiver Ashton Dulin. Taylor engaged with safety Ashtyn Davis and blocked him toward the near sideline, allowing Richardson to turn the corner on defensive end Michael Clemons and barge his way into the end zone.
Late in the game, with the ball on the Jets' 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter, Taylor picked up linebacker Sam Eguovan on a blitz, allowing Richardson enough time to rip a 19-yard strike to Alec Pierce, which set up his touchdown to Josh Downs a few plays later.
"That's one of my challenges to him is just being all-around," Smith said. "He's a great ball-carrier but I thought he did a really nice job last week being physical. He had a nice block when Anthony scored the first time on that run, and that's a testament to him. He's been working on that. And then he had a blitz he had to pick up."
Taylor's discipline and physicality will again be important in Week 12 against one of the NFL's most physical teams, the 9-1 Detroit Lions. The Lions enter Week 12 allowing 94.8 rushing yards per game (fifth) and 4.3 rushing yards per play (11th).
If the Colts look to establish the run again, they'll lean on Taylor to create efficient and explosive plays on the ground – but, regardless of the outcome of those plays, to be disciplined with the ball in his hands.
And when Richardson drops back to pass – or, as he showed against the Jets, takes off on a designed run – the Colts will need Taylor to match the physicality of the ultra-physical Lions.
"Those guys are going to be downhill, they're going to challenge us and he's going to be in there," Smith said, "and that's what he's going to have to do."
