The Indianapolis Colts are 3-0, and it's time to start recognizing them as the elite team they've shown themselves to be through three weeks. Yes, they beat the Titans in Week 3. Yes, the Titans are a bad NFL team. But this is the NFL, and every team (even the bad ones) can still beat a superior opponent on any given Sunday.
If you asked a Packers fan whether they were worried at all about a game against the lowly Cleveland Browns, they likely would have laughed in your face. Well, come Week 3, and the Browns just beat the recent darlings of the NFL in the Green Bay Packers by a score of 13 to 10.
It's true that some wins are more impressive than others, and it's also true that tough games against tough competition are the true tests of seeing what a team is made of. However, those games don't matter if you don't take care of the quote-unquote easy games. It's the NFL, and no game is easy. So, let's see who performed well and who fell short for the Colts in Week 3.
Indianapolis Colts' Jonathan Taylor is a legitimate MVP candidate
Jonathan. Taylor. Week in and week out, the running back continuously proves why he is regarded as among the very best at his position. Last week's 165 rushing yards (with an extra 50 receiving to boot) and a touchdown weren't good enough? How about this week's outing of 102 rushing yards and 16 receiving yards to the tune of three touchdowns?
Taylor has been absolutely sensational this year. He's outpacing his contemporaries by a huge margin, having accumulated a league-leading 338 rushing yards. The next closest rusher? Buffalo's James Cook who has garnered 284 yards on the ground. The gap between Taylor and the second-highest total in the league is bigger of a bigger difference than the gap between Cook and the fourth-highest rushing leader, Atlanta's Bijan Robinson, with 239 yards.
Yes, Jonathan Taylor has nearly 100 more rushing yards than the running back with the fourth-highest rushing yard total in the league. He's been that good. The usual suspects for MVP (i.e., Jackson, Allen, and Herbert) have been awesome this year, but Taylor has performed well enough to more than have thrown his hat in the ring.
Winner No. 2: Kenny Moore
Moore is more than deserving of the second winner's spot in this list, but his outing against the Titans was a bittersweet one. He started the game on the highest note imaginable, taking a pick-six from number one overall pick Cam Ward to the house on just the third play from scrimmage.
Moore also garnered two tackles on the stat sheet, but unfortunately had to leave the contest early. It has been reported that the corner suffered a calf injury and will miss the next few weeks. Luckily, it has been noted not to be a very major injury, and with any luck, Moore will be back sooner than later.
It helps soften the blow that CB1 for the team, Charvarius (or "Moony" as the broadcast so often liked to point out) Ward, was back in Week 3. He performed admirably, though he didn't reach the heights Moore did on the day. Indy has since brought in veteran cornerback Mike Hilton to fulfill Moore's role in his absence, and luckily, Hilton has a lot of experience in defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo's system from his days in Cincinnati.
Winner No. 3: Michael Pittman
This year, Pittman has been almost overshadowed by the massive hype surrounding rookie tight end Tyler Warren. However, the team's WR1 has been just as good as can be expected through the first three weeks of the season. He finished the day in Tennessee with 73 yards and a touchdown.
By no means did Pittman have an out-of-this-world day like Jonathan Taylor, but he did exactly what was expected of him. He was the leading receiver on the team (though that might have changed had Alec Pierce not gotten hurt when he had a lot of momentum going), and he put a score on the board.
In an offense with as many weapons as Indianapolis has, there is an old adage that is applicable. There's only one ball on the field. The Colts are at their most effective when everybody gets a chance to touch the football, and because of that, the team produces a lot of well-rounded stats, but typically nothing eye-popping from one player. Unfortunately, our first loser of the list was unable to leave a mark at all on the game.
Loser No. 1: Adonai Mitchell
As was stated in the section above, the Colts have a loaded offense. Not everyone is going to get to touch the ball as much as they'd like. Still, the Colts didn't invest an early second-round pick in young Adonai Mitchell for him to produce a stat line of zero catches for zero yards on two targets.
Now, that stat line doesn't tell the whole story, as Mitchell's biggest impact of the game came when he drew a pass interference in the endzone against a Titans cornerback to set the team up at the goal line. Unfortunately, besides that one play (one where he still didn't catch the ball, even if it wasn't his fault), Mitchell had no impact at all on the game.
In fact, many times it was easy to forget that he was on the field. There's not a lot to complain about when the team is 3-0, the offense is humming, and they're just coming off a blowout win. Let's not forget that things are good here.
Still, in an ideal world, it would've been nice to see some flashes from the young pass catcher. Luckily for the Colts, he was far better on the day than the next loser on the list.
Loser No. 2: Brian Callahan
Wow. We can't pretend to know all the nuances of the game and how hard it is to coach an NFL team as mere fans from the sidelines. Even so, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who couldn't have coached better than Brian Callahan did to end the first half of this game.
Let's paint a picture. The Titans are driving, and the two-minute warning has already hit. They have timeouts, and their goal is to score without giving the Colts a chance to get the ball back. The Colts call a timeout with 47 seconds left to try and get the ball back before half. The Titans then call a timeout directly after the Colts' timeout.
After this extended break, they still fail to get the kicking team onto the field in time. They take a delay of game penalty, pushing a 57-yard field goal attempt back to 62 yards. They then proceed to miss the field goal, giving the Colts amazing field position with time still remaining. The Colts then drive a bit and kick a field goal of their own.
Say what you will about Shane Steichen (who has had his own clock management issues as recent as last week), but it's hard to imagine managing the clock to end a half worse than that. To be frank, there usually aren't too many losers for a team that has just won a 40-point blowout, so Callahan's nonsensical coaching decisions land him the second loser spot of the day.
Ultimately, the Indianapolis Colts are a team that seems unstoppable right now. They are 3-0, have the leading rusher in the league, and the third leading passer. Their divisional opponents are all stumbling, with the Texans and Titans both falling to 0-3. The Jaguars are 2-1, but they've looked shaky all year as well.
As of now, this is the Colts' division to lose. They have proven themselves to be the best team in the AFC South thus far into the season, and to be successful, they need to keep proving it. If they perform like they did against the Titans every week, then they'll definitely be in good shape.