Monday, November 22, 2021

A Horsey resurgence

 Well, OK. So nobody saw this coming.

Nobody saw Jonathan Taylor, suddenly the next best thing to the injured Derrick Henry, going into Orchard Park, N.Y. and leaving tread marks all over the Buffalo Bills, once the Super Bowl-bound Buffalo Bills. No one saw the Indianapolis Colts handle the Bills like a dog handles a pork chop. No one saw Colts 41, Bills 17 -- now there's someone else in the ever-shifting AFC to whom everyone might want to pay attention.

Remember when we were all yelling at Frank Reich to RUN THE FOOTBALL, DAMMIT? Remember when Carson Wentz was, yep, the same broken flash-in-the-pan l he was in the last days in Philly? Remember when the Colts were 1-4 and the season was circling the drain?

Prisoner-of-the-moment stuff. All of it.

Because, listen, it was never that bad, ever. Those who kept their wits about them looked at the Colts schedule and noticed they started the season with the Seahawks, the Rams, the Titans and the Ravens in their first five games. None of them have turned out to be as good as they were supposed to be, and the Seahawks are godawful right now. But they weren't then.

Those who kept their wits about them also noticed a pile of Colts were inoperative at the time. And so they looked at that, and looked at the opening acts of the sked, and said "It'll get better."

And it has.

People have healed. Reich is turning the ball over to Taylor and the run game and letting Wentz pick his spots against defenses grown weary from the battering. And now the Horsies are 6-5 and have won five of their last six, ahead lies the Buccaneers, Patriots and Cardinals, but also the 2-8 Texans, the 2-8 Jaguars and the 5-5 Raiders. who've lost their last three and, in the last two, have been outscored 73-27 by the Chiefs and the Bengals.

And the Colts?

Yesterday, Taylor lugged it 32 times for 185 yards and four touchdowns, and caught a pass for a fifth score. The offensive line blew the Bills off the ball the way an offensive line some call the best in the league is supposed to. And the defense picked Josh Allen twice and recovered a fumble.

So, see? It's all working out, just like the cooler heads said it would.

Well. For now, anyway.

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