Doyel: Don't tell Zack Moss, Gardner Minshew and these Colts what they can and cannot do
INDIANAPOLIS – Colts running back Zack Moss has just scored the go-ahead touchdown in this 23-16 victory Sunday against Tennessee, the longest 3-yard TD run you’ve ever seen, what with him stopping and starting and pausing and then darting into the end zone. He’s alone now in the middle of the end zone, feeling the love from the Lucas Oil Stadium crowd of 65,287, and trying to decide how to celebrate when he spots the goalposts. You can’t see inside his helmet, but you know exactly what he’s thinking:
I’m gonna dunk this thing.
Moss is 5-9 and weighs 205 pounds. He’s wearing pads and cleats and a helmet. He has just carried the ball five times in the last six plays, including the last four snaps. He’s banged up and tired, not to mention 5-9 and wearing all that NFL armor, but he sees the crossbar and he’s going for it, and there’s a metaphor here for the Colts.
Don’t tell them – not Moss, not the Colts – what they can and cannot do.
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The Colts have a rookie franchise quarterback who can’t stay healthy and a Pro Bowl running back who missed the first four games and a concussion-marred roster that added one more starter to that list Sunday. The Colts were starting rookies at cornerback against an all-time great receiver like Tennessee’s DeAndre Hopkins, and a former Mr. Irrelevant at linebacker against an all-time great running back like Derrick Henry, and a rookie fourth-round pick at left tackle against one of the best pass rushes in the NFL.
The Colts cannot do what they just did, or what they have been doing all season if we’re being honest. They are 3-2 and tied with Jacksonville for first place in the AFC South after this win, which snapped a five-game losing streak to the Titans and a seven-game losing streak at home. Oh, did you not know that last part? This was the Colts’ first victory at Lucas Oil Stadium since Oct. 16, 2022.
That was 51 weeks ago.
Strange stat right there. Strange season we’re watching. So much good and so much bad, so much more drama and Zack Moss and Gardner Minshew than we’d expected.
Speaking of Moss, here he goes for the goalposts. Squatty little guy, he takes two steps and hops onto two feet and bends down and explodes up – and what do you think?
Is he really going to dunk that thing?
Three injuries in last 16 rushes for Anthony Richardson
Anthony Richardson has just been smashed to the unforgiving turf, and he’s not getting up, and the anxiety of Lucas Oil Stadium comes out in a single, bellowing groan.
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It’s hard for everyone to watch, this exciting young quarterback – with the sweet disposition and gigantic body and unlimited potential – being knocked out of three of his four NFL games, with three different injuries. He took a shot to the knee late in the opener against Jacksonville and probably could’ve returned, but the Colts were being cautious.
The Colts have been cautious with him all season, really. They’re not exactly playing him in bubble wrap, but that would be silly. They drafted the 6-4, 245-pound athletic marvel because he’s almost as dangerous with his legs as his arm, and 25 carries in four games is not an unreasonable amount. Not for someone with his size and speed. But he has been injured three times on his last 16 carries: The play against Jacksonville, then the hit as he was scoring against Houston in the second game, and now this one against the Titans.
Richardson was having the best passing game of his promising rookie season – 9-for-12 for 98 yards, including a 38-yard beauty to rising star rookie receiver Josh Downs (six catches, 97 yards) – when he gained four yards on a keeper around right edge late in the first half. Titans linebacker Harold Landry III rode him to the ground, Richardson landed on his right shoulder, and the 6-2, 252-pound Landry landed on him. The crowd is groaning and Richardson is rolling over onto his back and pointing with his left hand to his right shoulder.
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Maybe it’s all that UFC I watch, but it looks like Richardson is tapping out, and maybe he was. Because he knew.
Richardson slowly rose and walked toward the injury tent, his right arm dangling low, his head tilted to the right. He wasn’t in the tent long before he was coming out and slowly walking to the locker room, arm still dangling, head still tilting, crowd not believing this was happening.
Happening again, rather.
The Titans led 13-10 when the bad news was announced: Richardson would not be coming back today. Afterward, Colts coach Shane Steichen would decline to say much about the injury, mainly because it’s too soon, though the Colts suspect a sprained AC joint. Tests will be run later, but it looked bad and it feels bad and there’s just no way Anthony Richardson has missed one of his five NFL games and been knocked out of three of the other four … and the Colts are 3-2?
The Colts are tied for first place in the AFC South?
With the Jonathan Taylor situation and Shaquille Leonard’s bevy of injuries and all those rookie cornerbacks on the field and concussions on the roster?
On second thought, Anthony Richardson was merely gesturing to his shoulder. He wasn’t tapping out.
Tapping out isn’t something the 2023 Indianapolis Colts know how to do.
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Zack Moss, Gardner Minshew, Zaire Franklin and Mr. Irrelevant to the rescue!
It’s weird that Leonard keeps getting hurt and Richardson keeps getting hurt and Taylor found a way to miss four games. You know what’s weirder?
The Colts haven’t missed them. Not really. Not nearly as much as you’d have thought.
Zack Moss, who came into this season with a single 100-yard rushing day in his first 50 NFL games, has topped that mark twice in the last three weeks. He ran for a career-high 122 yards in that shocking win at Baltimore, a win that is looking less and less shocking, and set a new career high Sunday with 165 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. One was a 56-yard sprint, untouched into the end zone, as Moss looked at least five times over his shoulder – as shocked as you were that nobody was catching him.
Moss also caught two passes for 30 yards, including a 26-yard screen pass on third-and-5 from the Colts’ 11 with 6:41 left. That play extended a drive where Moss carried the ball eight more times for 35 yards, leading to Matt Gay’s third field goal and leaving the Titans just one minute to drive the length of the field with no timeouts. Which they could not do. Not against The Little Defense That Could.
Zaire Franklin, who came into this league as a seventh-round draft pick, a special teamer with great leadership skills, has emerged as one of its finest linebackers after Leonard’s injuries created an opening for him. Franklin led the NFL last season with 166 total tackles and is leading the league this season with 43 solo tackles, and had 12 more total tackles Sunday when the Colts held Derrick Henry to 43 yards on 13 carries.
Franklin wasn’t doing it alone Sunday, obviously, not on the play of the game – when he and DeForest Buckner combined to stop Henry on fourth-and-1 at the Colts’ 5 with 8:30 left – and not earlier, either.
At one point Henry had the ball on a toss sweep, cut up the field and had nobody to beat but 5-11, 230-pound Grant Stuard, who came into this league like Franklin, a seventh-round draft pick, only less relevant: Stuard was the last player chosen in the 2021 NFL Draft – Mr. Irrelevant, you call that guy – but there he was, four inches shorter and 17 pounds lighter than Henry and diving for his ankles and bringing him down.
That was the Colts on Sunday, stopping Henry with seventh-round draft picks at linebacker and holding Ryan Tannehill to a 78.6 passer rating with two rookies at cornerback (JuJu Brents of Warren Central, and Jaylon Jones). Tannehill’s final pass, intended for Hopkins, was intercepted with 10 seconds left by Julian Blackmon, who led the rest of the defense into the south end zone for a photo op.
All that was left was for Gardner Minshew to kneel once to end a game where he was 11-for-14 for 155 yards, a 112.8 passer rating.
You tracking all of this? The Colts are getting Pro Bowl-level production from replacement running back Zack Moss and replacement linebacker (in 2022) Zaire Franklin. They’re getting 68.7% passing accuracy, four touchdowns and no interceptions this season from quarterback closer Gardner Minshew. They’re getting left tackle Blake Freeland doing a reasonable impersonation of injured starter Bernhard Raimann, who missed this game with a concussion along with starting defensive end Kwity Paye. Tight end Mo Alie-Cox left in the third quarter with a concussion, joining Raimann, Paye, Richardson, Leonard and Pro Bowl center Ryan Kelly as Colts previously on the concussion list.
None of this seems plausible, but we’re getting past the point of disbelief. The Colts are 3-2, they’re in first place in the AFC South, and you better believe this:
Zack Moss dunked that ball right over the crossbar.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts keep losing QB Anthony Richardson, finding Zack Moss and winning
