Stampede Blue
The Indianapolis Colts (4-1) were looking to rebound off a tough road loss last weekend, and with the Las Vegas Raiders (now 1-4) coming to town, it was a good opportunity to start their next winning streak.
Looking at their collective schedule and the quality of their opponent—and being at home, this really is a game that the Colts should and needed to win—and they did so in very convincing fashion.
The Colts defense dominated, limiting the stalled Raiders offense to just 6 points and with two turnovers.
One of those was a batted ball by nose tackle Grover Stewart at the line of scrimmage that turned into an opportunistic Laiatu Latu interception with around 4 minutes left in the first half. The other was a Mekhi Blackmon interception off of Raiders veteran quarterback Geno Smith near midway through the 3rd quarter, with a lengthy 32-yard return to the Las Vegas 6-yard line.
Linebacker Austin Ajiake led the Colts with 9 tackles, while Zaire Franklin, DeForest Buckner, Samson Ebukam, and Tyquan Lewis all chipped in a sack.
On the other hand, it was largely the Jonathan Taylor show offensively, who delighted fantasy owners, with 3 rushing touchdowns to go along with his 17 carries for 66 total rushing yards (3.9 ypc. avg.). Veteran backup Ameer Abdullah also chipped in a 2-yard touchdown run following the Blackmon pick close to the goal line.
Still impressive Colts veteran quarterback Daniel Jones also had a solid, if unspectacular day. Jones completed 20 of 29 pass attempts (69%) for 212 total passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, 0 interceptions. No throw was arguably more impressive than his 4-yard touchdown pass to Michael Pittman Jr. with 15 seconds left until halftime. Jones initially eluded pass pressure, extended the play to his right, and made a laser pass for the nifty touchdown pass—with Pittman Jr. also having an equally impressive catch.
Colts backup quarterback Anthony Richardson entered during the early 4th quarter in mop up duty, completing one of two pass attempts for 9 passing yards, which the completion was a weird one on a batted ball at the line of scrimmage that he both threw and caught.
Otherwise, top rookie tight end Tyler Warren had his first career touchdown reception on an 11-yard pass early in the 2nd quarter, while Ashton Dulin was a definite bright spot filling in for still recovering wideout Alec Pierce—leading the Colts in receiving yards with 2 receptions for 55 total receiving yards.
If there were negatives, Colts linebacker Joe Bachie struggled in this one, having an offensive holding call that negated a 98-yard Dulin kickoff return for a touchdown with 3:21 left in the first quarter. He was then penalized twice on a subsequent play.
The Colts also lost the reigning AFC special teams player of the month in this one to injury, as place kicker Spencer Shrader got run over on an extra point attempt and sustained a right left injury. He did not return. In his absence, the...
