'You can see the will being sucked out of them': 13 straight runs show Colts believe again
INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts offense took the field in the third quarter for an old-school drive of bully ball, a brand of football that represents what they want to be more so than what they’ve been.
But out here on this turf, under these lights and in front of these terrible towels is a place where dreams can come true. That is what happened on a nearly nine-minute drive that featured 13 Colts runs in a row to salt away a 30-13 victory over the Steelers at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“You can see the will being sucked out of them," Colts center Ryan Kelly said of equaling the most runs in a drive in the NFL this season. “They don't want it. Thirteen straight run plays? They'd rather rush the passer on 3rd-and-long.”
But this moment wasn’t about what the Steelers wanted or what anyone else thought would happen. This was about players in Colts blue seizing a moment only they could see coming.
Take Trey Sermon. Three years ago, he was a third-round pick who flamed out with the 49ers quickly enough that he’s already become a journeyman, on his third team in a calendar year.
But there he was, taking the first six handoffs of that drive.
MORE: 10 Colts thoughts on a huge bounce-back win over the Steelers to stay in the wildcard race
He took one stretch handoff to the left and came face-to-face with Cam Heyward, a three-time first-team All-Pro who happens to have 80 pounds on him. Sermon stiff-armed him to the ground and plowed ahead for five yards.
On the next play, the Steelers stacked the box on 3rd-and-1 and Sermon exploded into the hole and finished through arm tackles for a 9-yard gain. When he hopped up, he started motioning his hands near his mouth as if to say, “Feed me.”
It was a throwback to when he first played in this stadium in 2020, as a running back at Ohio State, back when much of the world first took notice of him as he ran 29 times for 331 yards and two touchdowns on Northwestern to win the Big Ten championship.
That was the last time he ran this much, this angry and this joyful, all at the same time. That spirit dimmed in him for a few years, but it came back in a 17-carry, 88-yard performance against the Steelers.
“After a couple runs, I get a feel for the game even more,” Sermon said. “It's being able to anticipate things and hit that crease as fast as I can. I felt like I was really getting in a zone.”
Sermon took 10 carries on that drive, running through a Steelers defense that was gasping for air. They didn’t have to wait like he did. They didn’t have his life in their legs either.
"I knew my time was coming,” Sermon said. “I knew God didn't bring me far just to come this far. I try to do my best to stay patient and keep fighting."
Take Tyler Goodson. He played his final collegiate game in this building, also in the Big Ten championship, except he ran for just 50 yards on 18 carries that day as his Iowa Hawkeyes were blown out by Michigan. Despite an 1,100-yard breakout season, he went undrafted, and thus began a life of waiting behind stacked backfields and wondering if his time would ever come.
Goodson spent last year with the Packers, where he knew it would take an injury to Aaron Jones or A.J. Dillon to see the field. It never happened. He spent the entire season on the practice squad, made it through most of the next offseason and was cut in training camp.
When he signed to the Colts practice squad in early September, he knew the situation was essentially the same: As soon as Jonathan Taylor was activated, he’d be waiting behind him and Zack Moss to see the light of day.
"You kind of forget how fun the game is,” Goodson said.
"... I talk to Zaire (Franklin) most of the time. He told me it took him four years to get on the field. When you see guys like that making plays and playing the way they've been playing, it's like, 'All right, you can do this. Just wait your turn. When your time comes, you've got to take advantage of it.'"
His time came on Sunday, when Taylor was still recovering from thumb surgery and Moss was in the locker room, fighting through pain to squeeze his hand into a fist so he could grip the ball and finish a must-win game. But Moss never made it back out after his second-quarter exit, and the load fell to Sermon and Goodson.
Goodson turned back the clocks, not just to his Iowa days but also to the ones at North Gwinnett High School, where he won a state championship on a team with Josh Downs.
That feeling started early in the week.
"He was looking nice at practice, so I knew he was going to have a big game,” tight end Drew Ogletree said. “I didn't think it was going to be this big.”
On his second carry of that nearly nine-minute drive, Goodson exploded through a gaping hole, found himself 1-on-1 with a safety and dove inward to secure the first down. When he got up, he started waiving his arms over his head as he stared into the eyes of stunned Steelers fans whose towels weren’t waiving quite as fiercely anymore.
Goodson ran 11 times for 69 yards with a long of 31. He and Sermon combined for 28 carries for 157 yards.
Coming into the game, they had combined for 223 yards in their professional lives, all belonging to Sermon.
"They should be a big story from this game,” Kelly said. “Those are the first two guys there after a big run to congratulate you for blocking well for them. I think that shows a lot about their character."
They were the story, but they weren’t doing it alone. This was a throwback game for the Colts offensive line, not just to an older era of football but to a vintage version of themselves.
These guys used to do this from 2019-2021, running roughshod no matter who was in the backfield. At their peak, they were running it down a Bill Belichick defense or through the snow time and again in Buffalo on the way to Taylor’s runaway rushing title season in 2021.
Time moves at warp speed in the NFL, known as Not For Long. And last year, the line cratered so much beneath the weight of expectations, personnel changes and skillset defects that they lost their edge and also their fight. In Week 17 last year, when the Giants' Kayvon Thibodeaux performed snow angels next to a writhing Nick Foles, nobody from the offensive line could even give a shrug. It was a fitting end to a 4-12-1 season that everyone just wanted to end.
But here were four of those same linemen -- Kelly, Quenton Nelson, Bernhard Raimann and Will Fries -- running 13 straight run plays into the teeth of a Steelers defense that used to punish teams for even trying. The Colts were simultaneously the best versions of themselves up front but also overcoming obstacles, as they had a fourth-round rookie right tackle in Blake Freeland filling in for an injured Braden Smith against T.J. Watt.
And the front five dominated anyway.
"They did a great job just getting displacement and moving people,” Sermon said. “They created the ceiling and the lanes, and we just had to be patient and hit it."
Added Ogletree, “With that O-line, there's something special going on."
It's a belief that is permeating this Colts team now that it's 8-6 under first-year coach Shane Steichen despite a million reasons to have already folded. The Colts have barely had No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson at quarterback or Taylor, the 2021 rushing champion. They never got Shaquille Leonard back to form. They’ve lived as young as any team at outside cornerback.
And yet here they are, contending for a wildcard spot anyway. They have a locker room of men who have waited and believed when others didn’t.
Their moment has arrived.
"The story,” Goodson said, “is already written."
Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: How 13 straight runs show a team that has its belief again
