Taylor, in all, carried the ball 22 times for 147 yards (6.7 average) and that aforementioned touchdown on Sunday; he was also targeted two times in the passing game, hauling in receptions on both targets for 16 yards.
In fact, Taylor’s effort in the passing game was crucial to setting up Indy’s first touchdown of the night, as his reception and second effort on 3rd and 4 from the Las Vegas 5-yard line netted four yards and set up 1st and Goal from the 1. Ryan would sneak it into the end zone on the next play to give Indy a 7-0 lead with 3:21 left in the first quarter.
Whether it was getting yards the tough way, or it was breaking into the open field, Taylor said it was important for the Colts as a team to showcase its resilience after a rough last couple weeks, in which the team parted ways with head coach Frank Reich and offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, and brought in a team legend in Saturday who has more than enough credibility from his playing days, but was yet to have coached a single NFL or college game prior to Sunday’s contest against the Raiders.
“After what we’ve been through, it’s kind of that first kind of test on, ‘Hey, how are we going to respond?'” Taylor said. “You know, it’s been a lot of changes going on and a lot of new adaptations that we’ve had to face throughout this past week. So it’s the first test on, ‘How are we going to respond to everything on the outside?'”
The response, at least from an offensive perspective, was the Colts’ most well-rounded performance of the season. With new a new offensive playcaller in pass game specialist and assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier, Indy had 20 first downs — eight via the run and 10 via the pass — and converted 6-of-11 third downs, a week after being unable to convert a single third down on 14 tries. The Colts had 415 total net yards of offense, including 207 on the ground and 208 through the air, and limited the mistakes better than they had in most other games this season, committing…
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