O Indianapolis Colts went to Sunday’s game after a major defeat against one of his AFC rivals at the Pittsburgh Steelers in week 16, needing a victory and some help to get to the playoffs. O Colts faced a team that was in a streak of fifteen consecutive defeats, having been convincingly defeated the previous week by the Baltimore Ravens. There were some strong displays during the 28-14 win against Jacksonville Jaguars and some bad ones too.
Stock:
Jonathan Taylor had a historic Sunday day. Taylor has been amazing for the past month or so and has continued that up a little bit. Taylor produced 33 rushes for an incredible 253 yards and two touchdowns. Taylor went over 1,000 yards in the season, broke the race record for a single game in the franchise and also won the debut title of the year. Taylor ends the season with 1,169 running yards, 11 running touchdowns and also added 299 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown. The Colts need to take Taylor to the playoffs.
DeForest Buckner continued his first dominant year with the Indianapolis Colts. Buckner has been amazing since day one, since the Colts negotiated for him bringing him from the San Francisco 49ers. Buckner yesterday had his typical disruptive personality, he produced 4 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 2 quarterback strokes and 2 sacks. Buckner was a revelation for the Colts throughout the year and broke the Colts’ franchise record of defense position sacks with 9.5 sacks this season.
Darius Leonard it had a typical Maniac type game that the Colts and fans were so used to seeing it produce. Leonard was across the field on Sunday, producing 10 tackles, 1 hitting from the center, 1 sack, 2 defending passes and a force fumble. Leonard started a big important move when he fired from his linebacker position and was untouched by the Jaguars quarterback who fired him and forced a fumble, the fumble was recovered by the Colts. Leonard needs to maintain that kind of strong performance until the playoffs.
Stock down:
The Colts third quarter the bouts continued into week 17. The Colts entered the break winning 20-7 and, at the start of the fourth period, the Colts still had only 20 points, but they let Jaguars return to the game when they scored a touchdown. The Colts since week 12, the Colts scored just 13 points in total in the third quarter. For the season, the Colts scored touchdowns in just 13.3% of attempts in the third quarter. If the Colts want to go deep into the playoffs, that has to change.
Rodrigo Blankenship had a game to forget on Sunday. Blankenship had lost just 3 field goals during the year of 33 attempts. However, he added two more lost field goals on Sunday, lost from 56 yards and 49 yards. The 56-yard field goal was accurate, but it was not long, while the 49-yard field goal was long, but it hit the correct position. Blankenship was a big kick this year for the Colts and exceeded all expectations, especially considering that this is their first year in the league.