Colts: Carson Wentz might actually be taking the ball away from Jonathan Taylor

The Indianapolis Colts lost in infuriating fashion on Sunday, as they fell at home to the first-place Tennessee Titans in overtime.

Any OT loss to a team you’re chasing in the division will sting every single time, but this defeat was especially nauseating for the Colts.

After all, Carson Wentz threw a pair of back-breaking interceptions, the second of which set up the Titans’ eventual game-winning field goal in OT.

Wentz was incredibly reckless with the football and missed a number of open receivers in the game, so it’s easy to see why fans were so up in arms when they looked at the box score and noticed he dropped back to pass 51 times.

Why not give Jonathan Taylor, the offense’s undisputed player of the season thus far, more touches? As it turns out, Frank Reich dialed up more runs for Taylor on Sunday. The only issue? Wentz checked out of at least six of those calls.

Is Carson Wentz actually the reason Jonathan Taylor isn’t getting enough carries?

Here’s what Reich told reporters after Sunday’s loss.

"“Believe me, I want to get him as many rushing attempts as we can, but the flow of that game as I look back on it, three times now, like I said there were six more runs that were called to him that ended up being passes or else Carson (Wentz) keeping that are called runs to him. So, I feel pretty comfortable with the way the game was called as far as that was concerned yesterday, just evaluating.”"

That certainly explains a lot. Six carries might not seem like a lot, but that could’ve made all the difference on Sunday.

Taylor finished with 16 carries vs the Titans. That means he carried the football once every four times Wentz dropped back to pass. That can’t happen. Six more and we’re talking about a sizable 22 carries. You can live with that.

So, why was Wentz quick to audible out of these runs at the line of scrimmage? Did he fall for a potential trap from Tennessee to stack the box to take Taylor out of the game? Or was he trying to play hero ball in a tightly-contested divisional game that had huge implications on the rest-of-season standings?

It’s tough to say. What doesn’t help, though, is that Reich admitted he was comfortable with this ridiculous disparity. Why condone this type of behavior, especially when it clearly cost your team the chance of winning the game?

We can give Reich a pass if it was actually Wentz who killed these run plays, but he better drill it into his quarterback’s head that Taylor is the lifeblood of the offense. The second-year superstar is second in the league in rushing (649 yards) despite ranking fifth in total attempts (121). It sounds impossible, but Taylor literally doesn’t have a game this season where he’s logged 20 or more carries.

Wentz might be the root of the the problem, but it’s on Reich to ensure his best players touch the ball more often.

We’ll see if any changes are made Thursday night against the Jets, which HAS to be a blowout victory.

Colts: Carson Wentz missing Jonathan Taylor on game-losing pick is brutal

Colts quarterback Carson Wentz missing a wide open Jonathan Taylor on his game-losing interception in overtime is brutal.