Quarterback Josh Allen arguably is the hottest player in the NFL entering the playoffs.
Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor isn’t too far behind.
Taylor rushed for 253 yards in Sunday’s win over Jacksonville, tied for the second-highest total ever by an NFL rookie.
Over his last six games, Taylor has 741 rushing yards, seven rushing touchdowns and a 6.2-yard average per carry.
Containing the rookie from the University of Wisconsin will be the top priority for the Buffalo Bills’ defense in Saturday’s wild-card playoff game. It’s a task made harder by the fact the Colts have one of the better offensive lines in the league, led by All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson.
“I think it’s going to be a challenge this week,” said Bills coach Sean McDermott. “They’ve got a couple first-round picks up front, and their interior offensive line does a great job. I think we’re going to be challenged as a defense. They like to set the line of scrimmage.”
“That’s one of the reasons they’re running the football so well, for sure, because of their offensive line,” said Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. “So, it will present some challenges for our defensive line. We’re gonna have to do a great job of playing with good pad level and finding ways to separate from blocks. This offensive line has done a great job of neutralizing good defensive lines and we’ll be challenged. The way they’ve run the football the last few weeks, they put a lot of pressure on your defense to stop the run, which can open up some things in the passing game.”
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At 5 feet, 10 inches and 226 pounds, Taylor is a power back with speed. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds. The Bills’ Zack Moss ran 4.65 and Devin Singletary 4.66. Arm-tackle attempts barely slow Taylor down.
Taylor led NFL rookies with 1,468 scrimmage yards, 1,169 rushing yards and 12 TDs. He’s the eighth rookie ever with 1,000 rushing yards, 10-plus TDs and a 5.0-yard average per carry.
“Confidence and reps,” said Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni a couple weeks ago. “He just keeps getting reps, keeps getting better. He just keeps seeing it over and over and over again, and he is building confidence from that.”
Taylor’s emergence is not a shock. He was the third running back drafted, No. 41 overall, in the second round.
Taylor is the only Football Bowl Subdivision back ever to rush for 1,900 yards or better three straight seasons. He totaled 6,194 yards for Wisconsin on 926 carries, an average of 22.6 a game.
Taylor got 20-plus carries only once in the first nine games, as the Colts spread out the backfield workload. He had 30 carries against Jacksonville and has had 16 or better five of the last six games.
“At Wisconsin you’re used to 20 carries a bunch of games in a row and here, you’re surrounded by elite talent so there are multiple guys that can make plays and you’re not getting the ball almost every down," Taylor said. “You’re able to kind of preserve your body.”
The Colts’ blueprint to an upset Saturday will require them to prevent the Bills from getting a sizable lead so they can keep feeding Taylor and running the clock.
Said Colts coach Frank Reich: “Do we want to keep Jonathan rolling? Do we want to have a very strong run game? It would be nice to run for 250 yards again. That would certainly be the goal, but those 200-yard games, those just kind of happen. You get a couple long runs and so on and so forth. We’re going in with the same mentality that we always go in with. We’re going to mix it up. We certainly want to get the run game going, but we have a quarterback who can put the ball all over the field on a dime and can be dangerous in that regard so we need to try and keep them off balance.”
The Bills rank 17th in rushing yards allowed per game at 120 and 26th in yards per rush allowed at 4.62.
“We’ve just got to play disciplined ball,” said defensive end Mario Addison. “Read our keys. Stay in our gaps.”
