COLTS FIND WAYS TO WIN
It was only fitting that, for the Colts, a day that started with a host of adjustments would end with a big one. And that big one came on third-and-9 in Arizona on Saturday night, with Indianapolis clinging to a 15–13 lead and the clock ticking, with less than seven minutes to go.
Carson Wentz had raised an idea to Colts coach Frank Reich earlier and, while it made sense on paper, it would require trusting Dezmon Patmon to execute it—the same Patmon who was only in because Zach Pascal landed on the COVID-19 list hours before kickoff, and the same Patmon who last caught a pass in a game on Nov. 4.
Patmon was the last man in Wentz’s progression—and the focal point of the change.
“All week long, we practiced it running a different route and an out-breaking route to that side,” Reich told me late Saturday. “We were gonna run double out-breaking routes and then just take the best-look side. This morning, when Pascal went down, Carson was like, ‘Well hey, listen, I’m gonna work [Michael] Pittman the whole way so there’s no reason to run Dez on that same route that we were gonna run him on. We might as well just run him on an in-cut and if I don’t have Pittman, that way I can progress back to him.’
“And sure enough, it ended up playing out like that.”
Pretty much to a T.
At the snap, Wentz looked left and saw all three of his receivers, Pittman included, manned up. So he moved up in the pocket and—just like Reich and Wentz drew it up in the proverbial sand—as the quarterback bought time, Patmon started working across the end line, moving from the right corner toward the left. And just as he cleared safety Jalen Thompson, Wentz reached back against his body and tattooed Patmon with the ball.
That gave the Colts the breathing room they needed in what wound up being a 22–16 win.
It also said a lot about an Indy team that’s looked increasingly dangerous over the last two months. Anyone who’s watching has known for a while how big, fast and physical the Colts really are. This weekend tested them in a different way.
On Saturday morning, Reich woke up at Indy’s hotel in Arizona knowing his team would be without starters Quenton Nelson, Mark Glowinski and Rock Ya-Sin—all three landed on the COVID-19 list last week. And he figured, at least for a little while, that would be it, because the first text Reich got that morning was to tell him that there were no new positive tests in the batch that the team sent off on Friday.
Things would get worse. The next text Reich got was to inform him that three guys who’d returned negative tests Friday had come back in complaining of symptoms. They went to get some rest. Within a couple of hours, the symptoms for each had worsened. All three were administered rapid tests. All three came up COVID-19 positive. So the Colts were sent scrambling to replace Pascal, safety Khari Willis and perennial All-Pro Darius Leonard.
As the news was delivered, Reich was in the hotel lobby with GM Chris Ballard.
“The call sheet’s already printed out, so you have to basically redo the whole call sheet as far as the personnel groups with how we were gonna do it,” Reich said. “So [coordinator] Marcus Brady and the offensive staff basically sat there and reorganized all the calls on offense. And on defense, it was similar as far as, ‘O.K., we’re losing Darius, we’re losing Khar so how are we gonna package our personnel groups and how does that affect the way ‘Flus’ [DC Matt Eberflus] is gonna call the game?
“And then Bubba [Ventrone] on special teams, it was the same thing. I mean, he ends up giving me his depth chart and is basically having to redo the whole thing because of how many guys were out.”
In some cases, it was the team’s depth that showed up and pulled the rope*. The best example of that was probably third-year linebacker E.J. Speed, a talented kid the Colts have high hopes for, who’s simply seen his path to the field blocked by Leonard and Bobby Okereke, delivering a team-high nine tackles. “He played fantastic,” said Reich. “E.J.’s an incredibly talented player. I mean, he’s like Darius. He’s very long, he’s fast and he’s really athletic.”
In other cases, it was just all hands on deck. And that was illustrated by who was on the field with Wentz. There was, of course, Patmon out there in Pascal’s spot. Then, there was a line that came in without Nelson, Glowinski and center Ryan Kelly (away from the team dealing with a very difficult family situation), and lost left tackle Eric Fisher in the second quarter. That left this group in front of Wentz for the second half …
• LT Julién Davenport: Sixth-year pro on his third team. Last started Oct. 3.
• LG Chris Reed: Seventh-year pro on his fourth team. Last started Nov. 4.
• C Danny Pinter: 2020 fifth-round pick making his fourth career start.
• RG Matt Pryor: Fourth-year pro. Last started Oct. 24.
• RT Braden Smith: Cornerstone line piece—signed a four-year, $72.4 million deal in July.
And while COVID-19 was only responsible for two of the four absences up front, a message Reich had for his players on Thursday wound up resonating to everyone.
“I said to them, ‘Hey guys, this COVID thing, man, it’s gonna hit. So everyone has to be ready. Everyone standing on this field right now has to be ready to play winning football. Everyone standing on this field with a Colts helmet has to be ready to play winning football, because it’s gonna happen,’” Reich said. “It’s a virus. We’re trying. We’re one of the best teams in the league at following the protocols. We’re doing the best we can do.”
On this particular day, it meant going to work with that depleted line and a patchwork back seven on defense, and the brilliance of the Colts’ effort was that it was hard to see any of that at play in the final analysis. Indy held a 10-minute edge in time of possession, Jonathan Taylor went for 100 yards, the defense came up with crucial fourth-down stops in the second and fourth quarters, and then Wentz, who was up and down all night, came up big when it mattered most—regardless of who blocked for him or to whom he was throwing.
And that left Reich with a win that made him as proud as any his Colts have had over the four years he’s been in charge.
“I can’t imagine there’s one I’d put higher,” he said. “This feels like the most gutsy, great team win that we’ve had, considering the circumstances, since we’ve been here.”
And that win’s positioned the Colts, at 9–6 and with the Raiders and Jaguars left on the schedule, to make more noise in January, even if a few more curveballs come their way.
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