Colts running game has ‘hit a wall.’ Can it be fixed without Jonathan Taylor? – Beragampengetahuan

INDIANAPOLIS — Jonathan Taylor stood on the sideline Wednesday at West 56th Street watching Zack Moss participate in a blocking drill during practice. The Indianapolis Colts’ star running back was exactly three weeks removed from right thumb surgery, and his repaired hand was buried in the front pocket of his hoodie as he stared ahead at Moss and the rest of the team’s ball carriers.

Normally, Taylor would have been right there in the mix leading the charge, just as he’s done his entire life. Before last season, Taylor could count on one hand how many practices and games he missed due to injury. But so much has changed since then.

Last year, Taylor missed six games due to a nagging right ankle injury that carried over to the offseason and caused him to miss the first four games of the 2023 campaign. Just as he began rounding back into superstar form, a thumb injury in Week 12 put him back on the shelf. Taylor has missed two straight games, and after not participating in a walkthrough Tuesday and not practicing Wednesday, it appears he’ll likely miss his third consecutive game when the Colts host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

“We’ll see,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said when asked if Taylor had a chance to play against Pittsburgh.

We’ll also see what Indianapolis plans to do differently if Taylor can’t suit up.

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With Taylor out these past two games, the Colts have struggled mightily on the ground. Moss was one of the top rushers in the NFL when he replaced Taylor earlier this season, but the last two weeks haven’t been as fruitful. In fact, it’s been the opposite. The Colts are averaging just 2.5 yards per attempt over the last two weeks, which ranks 30th in the NFL during that span.

Moss, who’s started seven games this year, hardly found any daylight against the Bengals with 13 carries for just 28 yards. His 2.1 yards per attempt were a season low for a game in which he had at least 10 carries. When Moss finally broke free Sunday for a 10-yard score, it was called back because of a holding penalty on star left guard Quenton Nelson.

“It’s a lot of different things that go into it. We’ve kind of just hit a wall, in a sense,” Moss said of the running game. “But I’m not the coaches, so I don’t want to say exactly what I think we should or shouldn’t do and give away the game plan. … It’s really just going out there and being more physical. The run game, usually the other team knows what you’re gonna do. But it’s not about trying to be fancy or disguising everything.

“It’s just about a man whupping another man.”

Steichen echoed Moss and added that his team’s inability to effectively run the ball can’t solely be tied to the absence of Taylor. The Colts managed without Taylor before when Moss averaged 93.3 yards during a three-game stretch from Weeks 2-4, and Steichen said he believes they can be that effective again.

“We’ve got to be better in the trenches,” Steichen said. “Zack is obviously a great runner for us. It wasn’t our day (Sunday), and we’ve got to get it cleaned up going forward because we know December football is big — obviously, this last stretch here. But we’ll get it cleaned up, make sure we’re doing a heck of a job, starting with myself, putting these guys in position to be successful on Saturday.”

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• Recapping a mistake-prone day in Cincy
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• Congrats to Shaq! pic.twitter.com/u39981fb4G

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Nelson didn’t mince any words when asked about a running game stuck in neutral, emphasizing that his unit simply needs to “block better.” He noted a couple of moments against the Bengals when the Colts just weren’t sharp enough at the point of attack, whether it was accounting for a linebacker coming downhill or reacting to the Bengals’ defensive combinations, and it cost Moss the opportunity to reach the second level. Moss tallied just one explosive run (12-plus yards) against the Bengals and none two weeks ago against the Tennessee Titans.

While the focus on the poor rushing attack has been glaring the past two games because of Taylor’s absence, the Colts have been struggling on the ground for longer than a couple of weeks. Their recent four-game winning streak simply masked the lack of production, but the lopsided loss at Cincinnati has brought those issues to the forefront.

The Colts have had more than 100 rushing yards in a game only once since Week 9.

“Sometimes you might have games where you pop,” Steichen said. “It might be a 4-yard run, but then you pop that 30-yarder which gets your average up, and we need that. We’ve got to get some of those. Obviously, when we were running for over 100-plus yards, in a couple of those games we popped some big ones. I think that obviously gets your average up creating those explosives in the run game, and that’s what we’re going to need going forward.”

Indianapolis has faced defenses with eight-plus men in the box on 37.1 percent of its runs since Week 9, which is the 10th-highest rate in the league. That means opposing teams are refusing to make it easy on the Colts’ ball carriers and are fine with forcing backup quarterback Gardner Minshew to be a playmaker.

While Minshew has had his moments, he’s totaled 14 touchdowns against 13 turnovers this year. Relying on him to shoulder a big load is not a sustainable plan as Indianapolis tries to punch its ticket to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

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The quick fix to the run game would be Taylor’s return. In the seven games he’s played, the Colts are averaging 4.4 yards per carry compared to 3.6 in his absence. But as special as Taylor is, Indianapolis — currently holding on to the seventh and final AFC playoff spot — can’t wait around for him to save the day. Steichen said “the plan” is for Taylor to play again this season, and as he continues rehabbing, it’s up to his peers to make sure whenever he returns, he has something meaningful to play for.

“Everything’s still in front of us,” Moss said of the postseason. “We got four more games guaranteed to us.”

Four games to guarantee at least one more.

(Photo of Cincinnati’s BJ Hill tackling Zack Moss: Robert Scheer/ USA Today)

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