The Indianapolis Colts have a pretty good kick returner in Anthony Gould. His 26.6 yards on kickoffs and 9.7 yards on punts are solid numbers. But Gould has a knee injury that has kept him out of the last couple of games, and in his place, three different Colts’ players have stepped up in a big way.
I don’t usually track such things, but I have to believe the Colts now have the deepest group of kick returners in the entire NFL.
It didn’t necessarily start out that way on Sunday. In fact, in the first half of the Colts' thrilling 31-25 overtime win against Atlanta in Germany, the return game was downright maddening. In the second quarter alone, Josh Downs had an 18-yard punt return wiped out by a holding penalty on Ashton Dulin.
Colts special teams are unsung heroes in Indy’s overtime win against Atlanta
Then, a 42-yard kickoff return by Ameer Abdullah was erased by a similar call on Alec Ogletree. Both penalties set Daniel Jones and company inside their own 20-yard line.
Add in a couple of missed kicks by Michael Badgley, and things weren’t looking too good for Brian Mason’s special teams units. But Mason must have said something at halftime because in the second half and overtime, his units were huge.
We won’t even talk about Badgley shaking off his misses to make a couple of crucial fourth quarter kicks or the coverage units that stifled the dangerous Jamal Agnew all day. Let’s just look at those return men.
It began with Dulin atoning for that holding call with a fifty-yard kickoff return just after the Falcons had grabbed a 17-13 lead early in the second half. That should have set up Jones for at least a field goal, but a fumble ended that drive.
But the Colts' defense was stout for most of the second half and forced Atlanta into three straight punts. On the second, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Downs tore off another big return – this one for 24 yards, which set up the offense in Falcons’ territory.
It was quite a nice bounce back for Downs, whose fumble last week in Pittsburgh helped open a floodgate of turnovers that cost the Colts their second loss. This time, his strong return helped set up the field goal that closed the gap to one point.
After the Falcons took a three-point lead late, it was Abdullah time. It doesn’t appear as if the veteran back will get a lot of snaps on offense with Jonathan Taylor building an MVP-type season, so he is finding other ways to contribute. He blasted a crucial 49-yard return in the final two minutes to put Indy in excellent shape for the eventual game-tying field goal.
For the game, Indy averaged 34.8 yards on four kick returns. Both Abdullah and Dulin had returns into Falcon territory, and Abdullah would have had a second of over 40 yards if not for the penalty.
Downs averaged 10.7 yards on his three punt returns, and maybe his biggest was the five-yarder he had in overtime. On a short Bradley Pinion punt, the slot receiver raced up and fielded the ball in the air. He only managed five yards before being pushed out of bounds, but the value comes in the yards he did not give up.
How often have we seen a returner let that ball bounce and roll 20 more yards downfield? Downs, showing absolutely no fear after his miscue last week, made an aggressive play and gave Daniel Jones the ball in excellent field position. It was something Indy’s returners did all day long.
Taylor, Warren, and Franklin all had huge games for Indy. But Dulin, Abdullah, and Downs were pretty big themselves. In a close game, the Colts needed all of them to pull out the win.