Frank Reich On Playcalls, Jack Doyle, Carson…
2. Frank Reich explained the Colts’ pass-heavy approach after the game.
Between the 6:37 mark of the second quarter and 10:06 mark in the fourth quarter, Jonathan Taylor did not have a rushing attempt. In that span, Wentz dropped back to pass on 26 consecutive plays. But that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
For starters, a good chunk of that time was during a two-minute drive at the end of the first half. Nyheim Hines has been the Colts’ two-minute back all season, and the Colts scored a touchdown on that drive.
And then in the third quarter, the Colts called a couple run/pass options on which Wentz read the Bucs’ defense and took the “P” instead of “R” in RPO.
“Each drive we were looking at trying to mix it up where we could,” Reich said. “Call a couple RPOs early then you get a couple situations where you’re behind the sticks and then thirdly, like I said, Carson was hot. Felt like we were playing well there. That’s just the way it’s going to be sometimes.”
At halftime, Taylor had eight carries for 25 yards, underscoring how effectively the NFL’s No. 1 run defense was limiting the effectiveness of the Colts’ ground game. Wentz, meanwhile, was 16/24 for 197 yards with three touchdowns and a passer rating of 131.4 after two quarters.
“Normally someone will say something to me,” Reich said having so many dropbacks in a row. “Nothing was said to me during that stretch but sometimes something like that will be said. The reason probably no one was saying anything was because a lot of the things we were calling were working. A lot of them were working against a really good defense. So I think that’s probably why.”
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