Thanksgiving won't be the only feast Jonathan Taylor devours when Colts play Patriots in Week 13
Make no mistake about it: Outside of the Week 10 matchup against the Buffalo Bills, it's been tough sledding for Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts running game over the last month.Over the last four weeks, Taylor has rushed for a combined 254-yards on 69 carries, good for 3.7 yards a carry. He ran for […]
Make no mistake about it: Outside of the Week 10 matchup against the Buffalo Bills, it's been tough sledding for Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts running game over the last month.
Over the last four weeks, Taylor has rushed for a combined 254-yards on 69 carries, good for 3.7 yards a carry. He ran for 114-yards on 21 carries against the Bills, which inflates those numbers in a major way. Outside that game, he's ran for just 140-yards on 48 carries, which is good for 2.9 yards per carry. He hasn't recorded a rushing touchdown since October 27 against the Houston Texans, either.
For the Colts to truly run want they want to run on offense, Taylor has to be a factor and head coach Shane Steichen told reporters that when he spoke on Monday.
"It starts with myself. I think schematically, we’ve got to look at some things – on what we’re doing to get that thing going because he is a very talented player that can create the home runs for us," Steichen said when asked how he can get Taylor more involved. "So, we’ll look at that this week big time…
”… Anytime we can set the tone running the football, whether it's him [Colts QB Anthony Richardson] or JT [Jonathan Taylor], it helps our football team."
The Colts have a prime opportunity to get things on track against a mediocre-at-best New England Patriots run defense in Week 13. Right now, the Pats are giving up 123.1 yards per game on the ground, which is 18th out of 32 teams. They're giving up 4.3 yards per carry, as well, which is tied for ninth-highest.
Their numbers actually look better because of the last three games, but they've played two teams in the bottom-10 of rushing yards per game in the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams and the game script against the Miami Dolphins is nothing to hang your hat on if your Jerod Mayo and co. The Dolphins threw the ball 40 times compared to 24 runs and six of those carries came over the final two drives when the game was completely out of hand. Plus, three of those six carries came in the form of Tua Tagovailoa kneel-downs to close out the game.
On top of that, two more carries were non-traditional attempts by wide receiver Malik Washington and tight end Jonnu Smith. It's clear the Dolphins went into this game with the intent to throw the ball and simply add the ground game as a complement.
And what's even more interesting is the fact New England is giving up 130.0 rushing yards per game at home (11th-most), compared to 118.1 on the road, along with 4.6 yards per carry (tied for 11th-highest) and 4.1 yards per carry, respectively. Sure enough, this week's game will be at Gillette Stadium.
"Obviously, it's been frustrating the last couple of weeks, but you keep sticking to the process and the grind of everything, and I think it'll come," said Steichen. "Hopefully it's this week and we get that thing rolling.”
Jonathan Taylor will have a big game against the Patriots on Sunday – book it
Sure, the Colts aren't the greatest rushing team on the road. They average just 106.8 yards per game on the ground, which is 11th-worst, and they average 4.4 yards per carry, which is about the middle of the pack.
At the same time, however, I think they'll snap out of the funk against the Patriots. It's clear their season is over and while the players may still be fighting for Mayo, the Colts can -and will- get off to a quick start, which will only play into Taylor's hands even more.
Typically, when teams go through this kind of slump with a star player, they find a way to get things back on track. Expect that to happen with Taylor this week, which will only make his Thanksgiving holiday -and the Colts' Thanksgiving holiday- even better.
*All stats provided by teamrankings.com unless otherwise noted*
