Colts players reveal what Jeff Saturday brought to the team that led to Sunday’s win
The Indianapolis Colts were victorious in Jeff Saturday’s head coaching debut and players shared what difference Saturday made.
After the Indianapolis Colts were embarrassed by the New England Patriots in Week 9, it seemed like Indy was going to be incredibly hard to watch for the remainder of the season as they stumbled to even more embarrassing losses. However, team owner, Jim Irsay, desperately didn’t want that to be the case, so he fired Frank Reich and randomly hired Jeff Saturday. A week later, Saturday is 1-0 as a head coach and the Colts are coming off one of their most productive wins of the season.
Indianapolis defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 25-20 and had one of the team’s best offensive outings of the season. Despite losing Reich, who was also the team’s play-caller, a pre-game quarterback change back to Matt Ryan, and it being Parks Frazier’s first time calling plays, the Colts were able to put up 25 points and over 400 yards of offense. Saturday made sure to credit all the assistant coaches who’ve weathered the storms of this season but players weren’t shy about giving Jeff Saturday some credit as well.
Following the win, running back Jonathan Taylor told the media that Jeff Saturday gave the team passion. That passion was evident to anyone who watched the game as the offense looked as lively as it has this season. Parris Campbell also added that Saturday “brought a level of accountability this week” and that the team could see “that fiery player coming back out.”
For what it's worth: I have yet to hear a bad word about Frank Reich from any Colts player this week, on or off the record. This was just complimenting Jeff Saturday in the position he got thrown into. https://t.co/uiwySN9aTX
— Nate Atkins (@NateAtkins_) November 14, 2022
Jonathan Taylor says Jeff Saturday gave Colts passion
Jeff Saturday’s passion was also evident before Indianapolis even took the field. In the two opportunities Saturday had in front of the mic before his coaching debut, it quickly became evident that he loves the Colts organization and that he also still had the fire that made him a fierce competitor and passionate leader during his playing days. That passion helped him win over the locker room and it is now helping Indy win games.
Taylor expounded that this passion didn’t just include the team but extended to everyone in the organization. Saturday explained that he cared about everyone involved with the Colts and their families, and according to Taylor, that’s proving to be true after just a week on the job for Jeff Saturday. Now, the job for Saturday becomes to keep this team fueled.
The Colts are just 4-5-1 but the road will quickly get tougher for interim head coach Jeff Saturday. He got to get his feet wet with the struggling Raiders but Indy’s next opponent is the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. It’s going to take a lot of passion for Indianapolis to take down the talented Philadelphia team.
