Colts rode hot hand with Jordan Wilkins in win over Lions
The Indianapolis Colts (5-2) got off to slow start in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Lions (3-4), but all of that changed when they gave the backfield reins to Jordan Wilkins.
With rookie running back Jonathan Taylor struggling to get anything going during the first half of the game, the Colts went with the back who was constantly churning out positive yardage.
From the start of the third quarter on, the Colts rode the hot hand of Wilkins to a victory.
“Jordan (Wilkins), you guys know how we feel about Jordan. Yeah, I guess he is complimentary in one sense. In that sense, someone has got to start and
Jonathan (Taylor) is doing it,” said Reich after the game. “But we have a lot of confidence in Jordan. He played especially well today, so we kind of rode his hot hand a little bit. He just was seeing it well, great balance, some great runs.”
Wilkins wound up taking 20 carries for 89 rushing yards and a touchdown. The third-year back out of Ole Miss out-carried (14-1) and outgained (57-0) in the second half. They both got a goal-line carry on the same drive. Taylor couldn’t punch his in while Wilkins did on the very next play.
The Colts have made it clear they want to get all of their running backs involved. However, Taylor was seeing the majority of the work since Marlon Mack went down with a torn Achilles. But this was something new from Wilkins that may change how we look at the backfield split.
“I can tell you that we think very highly of Jordan (Wilkins), so we will look at this film. Sometimes, it’s a question of Jordan just getting the hot hand. Things didn’t come up maybe right for Jonathan (Taylor),” Reich said. “We will evaluate it. We want to continue to use all three of those running backs however it plays out. We believe in all three of them. They all are different. It is kind of like our tight ends, as you guys know how we look at our tight ends. I kind of look at our backs a little bit like that as well. We will continue to use all three of their skills.”
The Colts will need their rushing attack to remain consistent when they play teams like the Ravens, Packers and Titans, and it will be interesting to see if the workload will be more split moving forward.
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6 takeaways from the Colts' 41-21 win over the Lions
