The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, prevailing 31-25 in overtime in the latest game of the NFL's international series,
The Colts turned the ball over twice, took seven sacks, missed two kicks (an extra point and a field goal), went just two of 12 on third down, converted only two of their four red-zone opportunities into touchdowns and were penalized more than twice as often for more than twice as many yards as were the Falcons, but they came away with the victory thanks in large part to a titanic performance from Jonathan Taylor. The star running back carried the ball an incredible 32 times for an even-more-incredible 224 yards and three touchdowns -- including the game-winner from 8 yards out.
Taylor, rookie Tyler Warren (eight catches for 99 yards) and wideout Alec Pierce (four catches for 84 yards and a touchdown) were the stars for the Colts, who bounced back from their loss to the Steelers last week and improved to 8-2 on the season, maintaining control of first place in the AFC.
The Falcons had plenty of chances to win the game, including the final possession of regulation and the first possession of overtime, but they went backward on both of those drives and came away with zero points.
Michael Penix Jr. went just 12 of 28 for 177 yards (6.3 per attempt) and a touchdown, while also taking three sacks and an intentional grounding penalty. The Falcons leaned on their run game (28 carries for 141 yards from Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier) and their defense (seven sacks, three forced fumbles, two turnovers) to carry them for most of the game, but ultimately came up short.
The game got off to an interesting start with the Colts taking the ball deep into Falcons territory before ultimately failing on a fourth down. On the ensuing Falcons drive, Colts cornerback Cam Bynum came unblocked off the edge on a slot blitz and hit Michael Penix from behind, forcing a fumble and giving the Colts the ball back at nearly the exact spot from which they turned it over on downs.
It took just two plays for Indy to find the end zone, with Jonathan Taylor punching the ball in from a yard out. After an Allgeier touchdown (one of two on the day) gave the Falcons the lead, the Colts bounced right back with a touchdown toss from Daniel Jones to Alec Pierce to move in front 13-7.
The Colts wouldn't score again until nearly midway through the fourth quarter, but the Falcons only managed 10 points in the interim to stake themselves to a 17-13 lead. (Drake London had a touchdown catch and Zane Gonzalez added a field goal.) Their inability to build a larger lead than that ultimately came back to bite them as the Colts came from behind two different times in the fourth quarter -- including a late field goal drive where they converted a third-and-21 into an eventual first down -- to send the game to overtime, where Taylor played the hero and secured his team the win.
As mentioned, Taylor had an absolutely ridiculous game. He both opened the scoring and ended the scoring with touchdown runs, and in between those two scores he had an 83-yard jaunt to the end zone for a touchdown that briefly put the Colts in the lead late in the fourth quarter.
Taylor added to his potential MVP candidacy with his 244-yard day, which marked the single-game high for any player this season. Taylor also added 42 yards with his three catches, giving him 286 total yards. That's tied for the 23rd-most yards from scrimmage in NFL history, bringing Taylor into a dead heat with Marshall Faulk and John Taylor, who accomplished the feat in 2000 and 1989, respectively.
As previously mentioned, a TON went wrong for the Colts in this game.
They turned the ball over twice -- and could have had two more turnovers had one fumble not bounced out of bounds and another not bounced right back into the arms of Daniel Jones after he put it on the ground. Jones also took seven sacks, including a couple that erased potential fourth-down opportunities and two that either directly or indirectly led to his pair of turnovers.
Michael Badgley missed two kicks, including an extra point on the opening touchdown of the game. That missed kick lingered for most of the day as the Colts continually were trailing when they could have been tied or were down by four when they could have been down by three, and it even played a role in their needing to go to overtime at all because his game-tying kick late in regulation would have won the game had he not missed in the first place.
The Colts also failed on fourth down in the red zone twice in the game, first on their opening drive and then with a chance to take the lead late in the third quarter.
And yet, they managed to win the game despite all that.
Penix was fairly inaccurate throughout this game, missing his receivers on throws outside the numbers several times. He couldn't form a connection with Darnell Mooney, in particular, with Mooney catching just one pass for 17 yards on his eight targets. Both Mooney and Kyle Pitts had brutal drops, with the Pitts drop in particular looking like one that could have gone for a huge gain.
Really, nothing in the passing game worked for Atlanta outside of passes to Drake London, who managed to avoid Sauce Gardner's shadow coverage by aligning in the slot quite often. He also beat Gardner on a late-game two-point conversion to give the Falcons a three-point lead, but the Atlanta defense squandered that lead by allowing a field-goal drive by Daniel Jones and Co., which sent the game to overtime.
Penix was 6 of 8 for 104 yards and a touchdown when targeting London and just 6 of 20 for 73 yards otherwise.
Indianapolis drove for the win thanks to a beautiful lofted pass from Jones to Tyler Warren and then a whole lot of Jonathan Taylor runs. Taylor scored his third touchdown of the game to give Indianapolis a 31-25 victory.
After a controversy on the overtime coin toss (the officials let the Colts call heads or tails even though they are the designated home team), the officials re-flipped the coin and the Falcons started with the ball. After a third-down conversion on an illegal contact penalty, the Falcons went backwards and punted it to the Colts. All Indy needs is to get into field goal range to win the game.
After a drop by Darnell Mooney and an intentional grounding call on Penix, we're headed to overtime tied at 25.
The Colts did a great job to get into field-goal range after converting a third-and-21 and then fourth-and-3. Mike Badgley nailed the kick and it's 25-25 with 25 seconds left. (They added time on the clock after the previous play.) Atlanta has two timeouts to try to get into range for a game-winning kick.
With 23 seconds left, the Colts have a chance to tie the game. Atlanta called timeout to preserve time on the clock rather than letting the clock run down.
The Colts have been failing on fourth down all day and they finally got a conversion with the game on the line. Warren made a contested catch and sped up the field for additional yards to put the Colts in field goal range with just over a minute left.
Arnold Ebiketie and Kaden Elliss combined to drag Daniel Jones down for a monster sack on second down after an incomplete pass to Tyler Warren on first. Colts now need to come back from third-and-21 to try to get themselves into FG range.
What a methodical drive by the Falcons to take the lead again. And for the second time today, Tyler Allgeier plunges into the end zone from 1 yard out to put the Falcons in front. Penix made a couple nice passes but it was Allgeier doing the heavy lifting for most of the drive. After the two-point conversion on a pass to Drake London, Atlanta is up 25-22 with 1:44 left on the clock.
What a ridiculous run from Taylor. 83 yards to the house. Longest run of his career. He seemed to be stopped up at or near the line of scrimmage and he just bounced away to the outside and outran everybody to the end zone. Wow. Colts lead 22-17 after a failed two-point conversion.
Penix had a wide-open David Sills over the middle of the field and just flat missed him for what would have been a big gain into Colts territory. Indy will get the ball back with a chance to take the lead, with just south of 7 minutes remaining in the game.
The Colts have driven into Falcons territory on all three of their drives in this half but they've only come away with three points, which they got right here on a Mike Badgley field goal. Were it not for his missed extra point early in the game, we'd have a tie right now, but instead it's 17-16 Falcons with 9 minutes remaining.
These two teams are now a combined 0-13 on third down this morning.
For the second time this game, the Colts turn it over on downs deep in Falcons territory. They tried to run a misdirection toss play to Jonathan Taylor and it just had no chance as the Falcons read it the whole way. J.D. Bertrand made the stop before Taylor could get the line to gain.
Drake London fell down on his route and Sauce Gardner nearly jumped the pass for what could have been a pick-six but he couldn't come up with the interception. Instead the Falcons punted it right back to the Colts after the Jones turnover.
Daniel Jones was strip-sacked twice on the same drive. He recovered his own fumble the first time, but did not get so lucky on the second. Rookie Jalon Walker forced the first fumble and rookie James Pearce Jr. forced the second, which Walker recovered. Falcons can now look to extend their lead to two scores after Jones' second turnover of the game.
The Falcons moved pretty quickly down the field on their opening drive but stalled out just outside the red zone. Penix had Kyle Pitts open for a touchdown up the left sideline on third-and-5 but he left the throw a couple yards short and it bounced off a defender's helmet. (Pitts also failed to try to come back and fight for the ball. Could have maybe drawn a pass interference call by doing so.) Zane Gonzalez ended the drive with a field goal so it's 17-13 Falcons.
The Colts are already without DeForest Buckner on the interior of their defense and now Grover Stewart is down on the field after the first snap of the second half. Definitely worth watching when it comes to the Colts' ability to stop the run and get interior pressure on Michael Penix.
The Colts had a chance to re-take the lead before halftime but a sack set them back behind the chains. For some reason, the Falcons did not take a timeout to try to get the ball back before halftime, and then Daniel Jones threw a pick to Jessie Bates III. Now there are only 8 seconds left and they won't have a chance to put together a drive and extend their lead.
Drake London just scored his fourth touchdown of the last two weeks. Absolutely gorgeous hook-and-go route on a linebacker and a great lofted pass from Michael Penix to get him the score. Falcons are back in the lead after the extra point.
Indy got to third-and-short with two runs by Jonathan Taylor but a false start penalty set the Colts back and then Daniel Jones' third-down pass intended for Alec Pierce was behind the receiver and fell incomplete. Colts punt it right back to the Falcons. It was just the 13th three-and-out for the Colts all year, per the NFL Network broadcast.
Michael Penix was under heavy pressure on both second and third down and had absolutely nowhere to go with the ball. He ended up with a throwaway and a run for zero yards and the Falcons quickly had to punt after the missed field goal. Missed opportunity for Atlanta.
The Colts got the ball off their own goal line and into Falcons territory, but stalled out near the same area of the field that they did on their first drive of the game. This time they tried for the field goal and Mike Badgley could not connect. Falcons now have pretty good field position here to try to cut into the Indy lead.
Dee Alford is being evaluated for a concussion and Sam Roberts is questionable to return with an ankle injury, per the NFL Network broadcast.
Drake London was a little bit late getting to his block on the smoke screen to Bijan Robinson and Blackmon just laid the wood on Bijan to force the Falcons into a punt. Bradley Pinion had a great kick and the Falcons downed the ball inside the 5-yard line, but they missed out on a potential opportunity for points thanks to the 3-yard loss on third-and-5.
Sauce Gardner is following Drake London around the field when he lines up outside, but not when he's in the slot. Accordingly, London has been in the slot quite often so far. Makes sense for the Falcons to continue keeping him on the inside to get him away from the shadow coverage.
Daniel Jones took a shot into double coverage after a huge run by Jonathan Taylor and Alec Pierce just played some basketball and went up to make a touchdown grab. What a catch! Colts back in the lead at 13-7.
After a couple of big plays to Drake London and a pass interference on a deep ball to Darnell Mooney, the Falcons gave it to Tyler Allgeier twice in a row and he punched it into the end zone. After the Zane Gonzalez extra point, the Falcons are in the lead at 7-6.
Two plays after the fumble, the Colts are into the end zone thanks to a Jonathan Taylor run from 1 yard out. It's his 64th career rushing touchdown, tying him with Edgerrin James for the most rushing touchdowns in Colts history. The extra point by Mike Bagley went wide so it's 6-0 Colts early on.
Cam Bynum just absolutely walloped Penix from behind on a blitz out of the slot and forced a fumble. He came totally unblocked off the right side of the offensive line. Fumble recovered by the Colts, who are now set up with great field position.
Oh boy. Pitts was WIDE open on a deep crossing route over the middle of the field and Michael Penix Jr. hit him right in stride but Pitts dropped it. There was maybe one defender between Pitts and the end zone. He could have scored.
