The Indianapolis Colts pulled out a big win in Week 6 thanks to an explosion from the offense that entered the game as the league’s worst unit.
Through the first five games of the season, the offense for the Indianapolis Colts has been incredibly hard to watch. They entered Week 6 averaging a league-worst 13.8 points a game and also routinely turned the ball over and gave up sacks. It became clear that Indy wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything this season unless the offense turned things around. Well on Sunday, they did just that against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
After going down 14-3 early, the offense finally woke up behind a strong performance from veteran quarterback Matt Ryan. Indianapolis won the game 34-27 and the 34 points scored is the most the Colts have scored since Week 11 of last season. It was also Indy’s first time scoring more than 20 points since Week 16 of last year. What led to this big day from the offense? Let’s take a look at the people responsible for the promising performance.
3. Frank Reich had the right game plan against Jaguars
Head coach Frank Reich is also the offensive play caller and that means he gets a lot of praise or blame for how the offense performs. So far this season, it has been all blame. Many fans have been calling for Reich to give up play-calling duties and some have even called for Reich to be fired. However, on Sunday, Reich called a game that resulted in the Colts scoring 34 points.
Reich’s plan was to pass the ball. Down Indy’s top two running backs, Indianapolis didn’t try to force a run game that has been struggling this season. Instead, the team turned to Matt Ryan Early and often. The veteran quarterback threw the ball 37 times in the first half alone. That’s the most of any quarterback in a first half since Peyton Manning in 2013. Ryan finished the game with 58 pass attempts.
However, these weren’t just straight dropbacks with long developing routes. Reich made sure to draw up plays that got the ball out of Ryan’s hands fast so that he wouldn’t be under duress like he has been much of this season.
Reich kept this up all game, even towards the end when the team was in field goal range and could’ve run the ball to settle for a game-winning field goal attempt. Instead, the Colts decided to be aggressive, putting the ball in Ryan’s hands on third-and-13 with the game on the line. Ryan connected with Alec Pierce for a 32-yard game-winning touchdown.