Jeff Saturday and Matt Ryan revitalize Colts offense in huge win over Raiders

After a chaotic week for the Indianapolis Colts, Matt Ryan led Indy to a win against the Raiders, getting Jeff Saturday a win in his coaching debut.

The week leading to the Indianapolis Colts Week 10 game against the Las Vegas Raiders was a dramatic one. On Monday, Frank Reich was fired, later that day, Jeff Saturday was shockingly named interim head coach and he then named Parks Frazier as the offensive play-caller. Following that, Indy was under a ton of scrutiny for hiring Saturday since he didn’t have any high-level coaching experience. There were so many headlines surrounding the coaching change that Sunday’s game became somewhat of an afterthought. But not for the Colts.

As the game unfolded, it became clear that Saturday and Indianapolis had been locked in on the opponent all week as they battled to a 25-20 win, something not many people were expecting. Also unexpected was Matt Ryan playing. Just a few weeks ago, Ryan was benched and the Colts essentially wrote the eulogy to his NFL career. However, with Saturday now in charge, he elected to start Matt Ryan and it proved to be the correct move as the offense had one of their best performances and Ryan led the Colts on yet another game-winning drive.

The veteran quarterback finished the game completing 21-of-28 passes for 222 yards and one touchdown. He also added 38 yards on the ground with one of his biggest plays of the game being a surprising 39-yard rush.

Colts’ offense came alive against Raiders

All eyes were obviously on the offense since all of the changes made directly affected the unit, and they were much more productive as a whole. Indianapolis had 415 total yards and three touchdowns and only turned the ball over once and allowed just one sack. Even more encouraging than Matt Ryan’s performance was the day Jonathan Taylor had.

Taylor finished with 22 carries for 147 yards and one touchdown and that performance was highlighted by his 66-yard score. It was a much-needed outing for Taylor who has been having an incredibly challenging season. From the nagging ankle injury to the decline in production because of the regression of the offensive line, Jonathan Taylor looked like the running back that took the league by storm last season.

Now, the challenge for the Colts will be to make Sunday’s performance a habit instead of a one-off. Indy is now 4-5-1 and will face off against the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles next. Philly will certainly be a much tougher challenge than the Raiders.

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