It's on Shane Steichen & Jonathan Taylor to produce in a post-Anthony Richardson world

JACKSONVILLE - On a 75-degree day with the Florida sun beating down, the Colts lined Jonathan Taylor out wide for a snap, just to see if they could find him some daylight.

He motioned from an outside wide receiver alignment to behind Alec Pierce in the slot, creating one natural pick against a Jaguars cornerback in man coverage. The All-Pro back then dragged behind Josh Downs' route to create a second one.

Then he turned and the ball was there, and the next 38 yards were all on him.

Taylor hit the jets up the left sideline, speeding away from the huffing and puffing linebacker until a safety finally tracked him out of bounds.

This 40-yard gain was the peak of the Jonathan Taylor-Shane Steichen combination, a design they worked on all week in order to get their best player the ball in space.

"You can start smiling from ear to ear when you have that look that you want," Taylor said.

But they had to enjoy this one, because the rest of the day was not one for smiles.

The Jaguars came out and did what they always do to the Colts on this field. They suffocate their run game by dominating the math in the middle and daring anyone but the All-Pro running back to match Trevor Lawrence blow-for-blow in his stadium.

And for another year, the Colts couldn't handle it in a 37-20 loss. They ran just 15 times with their running backs against 55 passes from Gardner Minshew on a day where the Colts were consistently chasing points. Taylor and Zack Moss combined for just 40 yards with a long of nine.

“They played base defense the entire day. If they’re going to cover up every single one of us (on the offensive line we’re) not be able to get on double teams," center Ryan Kelly said. "They saw what happened last week and against Houston. We just have to find a way to make those creases happen even better.”

More Colts coverage: 10 thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts' 37-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars

The Colts have to find a way in the run game in order to find their way as a team. They're pushing through a painful transition in a world where Anthony Richardson can't be in the backfield because his arm is in a sling. The No. 4 overall pick has an AC joint sprain, and whether he gets surgery or lets it heal, he is not running through that tunnel anytime soon.

Without a 6-foot-4, 255-pound quarterback who can run a 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds, or just 0.04 slower than Taylor himself, the math is disappearing on them. An eight-man box often means that a five-man offensive line needs a tight end to nail a block, for the threat of a quarterback run to cut one defender out of the play and for the back to make the last one miss. When seven of those men line up across the line in the diamond front, they suffocate the ability for a back to follow his big teammates to the second level, like Moss did against the Titans for a 56-yard touchdown run.

The Colts have run like a revved-up hummer since Moss returned from a broken forearm in Week 2. Entering Sunday, they hit 126 yards on the ground in all four games, with better than 4.0 yards per carry. Richardson was a piece of that, but the silver lining after his shoulder injury was that they'd replace one electric runner with another in Taylor, the highlight machine who won the rushing title in 2021.

But the speedy Taylor and the bruising Moss can't hand off to each other in order to combine forces. They're playing with Minshew, who at 6-1 as a pocket quarterback does not dictate these defensive choices. The Colts have run wild with him for spurts, like against the Texans and Titans, but that came against defenses that spent the week preparing for the blender that Richardson's skill set creates.

The quarterback change stresses the surrounding pieces to dominate against disadvantageous math. The Colts played Sunday without one of their top run blockers in right tackle Braden Smith, and top blocking tight end Mo Alie-Cox barely played after spending the week in the concussion protocol.

Football is a sport of situation and alignment, and teams can force offenses out of the run game with either the scoreboard or the personnel. The Jaguars used both, piling up a 14-3 lead one minute into the second quarter, following Travis Etienne's 22-yard touchdown run after Josh Allen's strip sack of Minshew. Then they ran the diamond front.

Steichen isn't used to losing that math, as he built the NFL's most lethal ground game a year ago with the Eagles around Jalen Hurts and his 760 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. He sought out Richardson in the draft for that reason.

But he also sought out Minshew for his processing and grip of the playbook, a trade-off to his lack of of a physically domineering skill set. In the event of an injury to his starter, which is a present risk with so many quarterback runs, the Plan B was to overcome with design and precision.

On Sunday, that Plan B led to one explosive play before the fourth quarter. That was when he got Taylor freed in man coverage for an easy catch and run.

"I was excited when we hired Shane because of the way he utilizes the running backs," Taylor said. "He utilizes the entire field with all of his players."

Steichen generated touches for Taylor and Moss, as the two combined for 13 targets and 11 catches for 84 yards. The 6.4-yard average is healthy compared to run-game standards, but when those short receptions happen on 3rd-and-long, they can feel like a surrender.

It also ignores the style of football the Colts are building between a resurgent offensive line, a highly paid running back and a coach they hired from the league's model run game.

"You want to be able to ground-and-pound," Michael Pittman Jr. said, "Especially with those two guys."

Said Moss, "That's been the identity of the offense the past few weeks, to run the ball."

The dilemma is plainly ahead of them all. Next week, they'll host the Browns, who have allowed the fewest yards through five games of any NFL team in half a century and have a blueprint to follow from the Jaguars.

"It's, 'Hey, you're not doing this on us. You're not going to run on us. Try it if you want,'" Taylor said. "... It's a copycat league."

"But you've got to find ways to work around it, whether that's getting the ball somehow to the perimeter and out on the edges. You've got to scheme it, because that scheme is designed to stop the run. It's just finding ways to play that chess match."

This is the test facing Steichen and Taylor. One man was hired because of his ability to find answers through a scheme. The other just got paid $26.5 million guaranteed because of his ability to dominate regardless of a scheme.

On Sunday, the tandem felt stifled, save for one flash of light in the tunnel, when Taylor caught the ball and zipped 40 yards through the defense. It's something he used to feel but hasn't in a long time.

It's what he needs to feel regularly for his offense to find its way again.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Can Shane Steichen and Jonathan Taylor make this run game work?