Yahoo Autos Insider: Colts risk wasting Jonathan Taylor, the most prolific player they have
INDIANAPOLIS -- Jonathan Taylor is trying to find a hole but can't, and the space is shrinking, the bodies are closing in. Suddenly, he's falling backward, and before he slams onto his back on the turf, he feels pain in his right ankle, and the ball loosens from his finger tips.
In a moment, the Titans will recover. In 10 more minutes, they'll use their own superstar running back to bleed out the clock on a 24-17 win.
Taylor will be somewhere in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium trying to figure out how to move without pain again.
The Colts lost a game and perhaps something more central to their DNA on Sunday. Taylor will now undergo tests on his right ankle to see if he's able to play again soon. Thursday's road trip to Denver is fast approaching.
Taylor arrived to the locker room at Lucas Oil Stadium later than just about any other Colts player. He bounced from treatment to the shower before speaking to the media, when he was still trying to process what happened.
"It just tweaked up a little bit, but I'm feeling good now," he said. "It was a lot of commotion going on. Things just happen so fast on the field. It's crazy."
Taylor's health is of primary concern to the Colts right now. Secondary is figuring out a way to make him a difference maker again.
Taylor took 20 carries against the Titans and gained just 42 yards behind the NFL's highest-paid offensive line. His long was 11 yards.
After a 161-yard day in the season opener, this is the third straight game in which he's fallen short of 75 yards rushing. That had not happened since the first three games of 2021, when the Colts started 0-3.
A year after Taylor broke five runs for 40 yards or more, his longest run is 21 yards.
A year after he led the league with 18 rushing scores, he's scored one time in four games.
And yet...
"It's not about JT," running back Nyheim Hines said. "JT has done well. JT has been grinding. The supporting cast around him has to be better -- myself, receivers, anyone in this offense not named JT. We have to be better."
Taylor is having a down season by his standards with 82 yards per game and 4.1 yards per carry, but the Colts have given him 81 of the 91 running back carries for a reason: Hines and Deon Jackson have managed eight total yards on the other 10.
The Colts are asking the most prolific back in the league to give their run game a chance.
