3 stats that will make you hate Colts’ Jonathan Taylor plan vs Bucs
By Adam Weinrib
2. Colts Called Carson Wentz’s Number 27 Straight Times
And the running play that preceded this streak of passes? It was Nyheim Hines, of course. Naturally. That’s the guy.
Yes, Taylor did not receive a handoff out of the backfield for a monstrous stretch preceding his fresh-legged, game-tying drive midway through the fourth. In fact, Taylor reached a point prior to that drive where he’d had only a single touch since the 6:37 mark of the second quarter.
Now, to be perfectly fair to Reich’s plan, some of those were RPOs where Wentz read the defense and opted into passes.
After the game wrapped, Coach Reich wanted to make that very clear, while adding that the offense was “rolling,” struck down by turnovers.
No, the Colts didn’t call 27 straight throws in the middle of this game — several RPOs saw heavy fronts so Wentz checked into a pass. Otherwise, Reich says, the offense “was rolling.” He’s right, to a degree. The turnovers killed them.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) November 28, 2021
That may be true…and yet…it’s hard to read the fine print and remain confident that deemphasizing Taylor was the correct call just because Wentz had completed a hot first half.
Not to mention the very idea of variance is what typically fuels the league’s best offense. It’s the reason why Taylor was able to run so freely last week against an above-average Bills defense.
Instead of a well-balanced attack, we were left with Wentz hitting 40 passes thrown by the end of the third quarter, which is not how a team should go after Tom Brady when they also employ the best running back this side of Derrick Henry.
Of course, you knew that already. And if you didn’t, you found out again by the time the game ended.