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Stephen Holder, ESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — On the Indianapolis Colts’ first play from scrimmage on Sunday, coach Shane Steichen dialed up a quarterback sweep run for Anthony Richardson to the left side.
The play was, without question, unsuccessful. A missed block against New York Jets linebacker Quincy Williams allowed the defender to slice through the traffic and drop Richardson for no gain. Williams leapt to his feet after the tackle and celebrated with a demonstrative fist pump.
But while the Colts failed to gain actual yardage on the play, they benefited in a much less obvious way.
Richardson, in his first start since returning to the lineup following a two-week benching, has said that running the ball helps gets him into the flow of the game. And given the playcall on the first offensive snap of the day, it seemed Steichen made doing so a priority.
In the process, he might just have found a workable offensive formula for the Colts as they now turn their attention to Sunday’s game against the red-hot Detroit Lions (1 p.m. ET FOX).
“I just appreciate them for just involving me in the offense,” Richardson said afterward.
The 6-foot-4, 244-pound Richardson went on to have 10 carries, totaling just 32 yards. But among those runs were two touchdowns, not to mention many other runs that helped keep the defense honest and forced it to devote resources to stopping the Colts’ massive, dual-threat quarterback. The Jets, at times, dedicated a defender to spying the 22-year-old QB.
Most of all, though, the quarterback runs allowed Richardson to play his style, which is how he settles into the game. Contact is an important component.
“Sometimes it is good to get out there and move around a little bit and get into the action a little bit,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said.
Receiver Michael Pittman Jr., who is known for his own physical style of play, put it this way: “When the game first starts, especially him being just so young, he’s probably got those butterflies and everything. And then he gets the first couple touches and runs and they go away, and then it’s time to play football … I definitely used to be [that way] when I was younger.”
If there was a criticism of Steichen’s usage of Richardson prior to the benching, it was the seeming reluctance to lean into Richardson’s physical style. A season-ending shoulder injury last season and a two-week absence earlier this season after an open-field collision likely factored into the coach’s calculation.
But Steichen seemed to remove some of those restrictions on Sunday, and it was effective. Nine of Richardson’s 10 rushes were designed quarterback runs, the most of his career (11 games). While they didn’t produce significant yardage, they made the defense account for Richardson, which reaped benefits for the passing game.
“[If] you talked to a bunch of opposing defensive coordinators … they’re going to tell you when the quarterback is a runner or a running threat, that changes the math a little bit,” Cooter said. “If that math is getting changed, then they’re having to make adjustments based on that math. And like most things in this game, when you make an adjustment one way, it ought to open up a little something somewhere else.”
Perhaps that’s why Richardson had such an efficient day throwing the ball, completing 20 of 30 attempts for a career-high 272 yards and a touchdown. Richardson’s QBR of 75.4 was his second highest of the season. And Richardson managed to remain aggressive as a passer while still being efficient; he had three completions of 30 yards or longer.
Richardson was particularly sharp in the fourth quarter, when he engineered two touchdown drives — including the first game-winning touchdown drive of his career. Richardson completed 8 of 10 passes for 129 yards with a touchdown pass and touchdown run in the final quarter, when the Colts rallied from an 8-point deficit.
But the defining images from Sunday’s game will be Richardson bowling over defenders and into the end zone not once, but twice. On his first touchdown run — a 2-yard rush in the second quarter — he lowered his shoulder and powered through an attempted tackle by safety Jalen Mills. Tight end Mo Alie-Cox joked that it “it looked like the dude got hit by the Holy Ghost the way he went backward.”
Later, on Richardson’s game-winning score with 46 seconds remaining, Richardson had blockers in front of him but still delivered a blow to cornerback D.J. Reed as Richardson crossed the goal line and the defender attempted to tackle him.
There might be a potential psychological effect at play here too.
“When the quarterback is as punishing as the running back, I mean that’s a tough task,” Pittman said.
Add that to the growing list of reasons the Colts might continue to deploy Richardson as a runner while their offense — and its quarterback — try to find their way.
