A fumble on a costly mistake by Jonathan Taylor early in the third quarter took a touchdown off the board for the Indianapolis Colts, which at the time, would have extended their lead over Denver to two scores.
“You just can’t do it,” Taylor said after the game. “That just can’t happen.”
With a 13-7 lead and the Colts’ offense getting the ball following an interception by Zaire Franklin, on the second play of the possession, Anthony Richardson handed the ball off to Taylor.
As Taylor ran towards the right side of the line, a hole was opened and Taylor burst through it, and made his way to the right sideline where he ran into the end zone.
Unfortunately, just before Taylor crossed the goal line, he let go of the football thinking he had already scored. However, upon further review, it was ruled that the ball did not break the plane, and, by rule, since it rolled through the end zone and out of bounds, it was treated as a fumble and, therefore, a touchback, giving the Broncos the ball.
All of a sudden, instead of the Colts holding a 20-6 lead, they remained up by only six points.
“I just told them I apologize and I just know that’ll never happen again. said Taylor. “That never happened to me before and it’ll never happen again.”
From that point on, the any sort of momentum that the Colts’ offense had established or was trying to build upon had vanished, and what proceeded was a second-half collapse on that side of the ball, with mistake after mistake after mistake ensuing.
“I just know that we had six less points,” said Taylor when asked about potentially having a 20-6 lead. “I do know that if I would have crossed that goal line with the ball, we would have had six more points. I don’t know how it would have played out after that, but I do know that we would have had six more points had I crossed the goal line with the ball.”
Taylor did have a productive game, eclipsing the 100-yard mark as the Colts leaned heavily on the run game. However, that isn’t what will be discussed in the coming days.
There were a lot of mistakes that happened in the second half and there was still a lot of time left on the clock–10:23 in the third quarter–when Taylor’s blunder happened, so no one can definitively say the outcome of the game would have changed had he not fumbled.
But what we do know is that this was a pivotal moment in the game and one that did not go the Colts’ way.
“It hurts. Especially when you’re getting into a flow during the game and then you just start shooting yourself in the foot–that hurts the most. Sometimes someone gives you their best and your best just wasn’t good enough, but when you hurt yourself like that, that one hurts.”
You can see Taylor’s full interview below:
#Colts RB Jonathan Taylor on dropping the ball just before he scored a 41-yard TD:
“They said I didn’t cross the goal line. That can’t happen.”
“I just know that we had six less points.”
“I just told (my team) I apologize, and I just know that that’ll never happen again.” pic.twitter.com/wog2WDvlxj
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) December 16, 2024
