Jets Country

Jets Get Trampled By Colts in Miserable Loss on Thursday Night

The Indianapolis Colts ran all over the New York Jets on Thursday Night Football, cruising to a victory behind a breakout performance from RB Jonathan Taylor.

Max Goodman

Coming off a remarkable victory on Sunday, upsetting the Bengals, the Jets were riding high.

That excitement and optimism about this club's future came crashing back to reality on Thursday night as New York was humiliated on national television.

New York never stood a chance, allowing 532 yards of offense in an ugly 45-30 loss.

Indianapolis ran all over Gang Green's defense, racking up 260 rushing yards. That's more yards than any other team has gained on the ground in a single game this season.

In fact, the Colts are the first team in the Super Bowl era to have 250-plus rushing yards, 250-plus passing yards, two-or-fewer penalties and zero turnovers in a single game, per Stats By STATS.

Jonathan Taylor led the way for Indianapolis with 172 rushing yards on 19 carries. Nyheim Hines added 74 of his own on six carries.

Don't let the score deceive you. Indianapolis took their foot off the gas early in the second half after jumping out to a 42-10 lead. New York battled back until the end, but it was too little too late.

For a team that allowed only 41 rush yards a week ago against Cincinnati, wreaking havoc in the backfield while making big plays in the trenches, New York looked like a student blindsided by a pop quiz. They didn't have an answer for anything all night long. 

Indianapolis scored a touchdown on all four of their drives on offense in the first half. The Colts hadn't accomplished such a feat, on their first four drives in a game, since December of 2007.

Running backs in blue often cruised to the second level untouched. New York was outgained 35 to 134 on the ground in the first two quarters. Wideouts were wide open in the secondary as well, allowing quarterback Carson Wentz to push the football down the field with ease.

Wentz wound up with 272 passing yards in Indianapolis' victory, their fourth of the season.

Meanwhile, after his heroic performance in his first-career start last Sunday, quarterback Mike White was relegated to the sideline for much of the game with a forearm injury. From the beginning of the second quarter through the final whistle, White watched helplessly as third-string quarterback Josh Johnson orchestrated the offense.

Johnson held his own, throwing for 317 yards the rest of the way with three touchdown passes in the second half, but an interception with less than a minute to play was officially the dagger. 

Above all else, however, Gang Green's pathetic performance on defense was the story.

Backup offensive lineman Danny Pinter caught a touchdown pass. Taylor scored on a 78-yard touchdown run. Seven Colts players caught passes of more than 10 yards.

There were times toward the end of the fourth quarter where Thursday Night Football felt like a preseason game. The score differential wasn't nearly as bad as New York's 41-point loss in New England two weeks ago, but in many ways, this performance was worse than that lifeless loss. 

It's particularly perplexing that a team can go from getting pummeled by the Patriots, to upsetting the Bengals with a season-defining victory, back to an embarrassing loss in prime time in a span of 12 days.

And yet, Jets head coach Robert Saleh alluded to those extremes just a few days ago.

"There are going to be days where we look like we should be a playoff team contending for a Super Bowl Championship. There are going to be days where we don’t look like we belong on a football field," Saleh told reporters on Sunday. "That’s youth. That’s this young team that is growing."

Surely Saleh didn't intend for those words to be a sign of things to come, but he was right.

New York didn't belong on a football field on Thursday night. At least the defense certainly didn't.

Follow Max Goodman on Twitter (@MaxTGoodman), be sure to bookmark Jets Country and check back daily for news, analysis and more.

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Max Goodman
MAX GOODMAN

Max Goodman covers the New York Jets for Sports Illustrated and FanNation. He also covers the New York Yankees, publisher  of Sports Illustrated and FanNation's Yankees site, Inside The Pinstripes. Before starting out with SI, Goodman attended Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and Master’s Degree in Sports Media, graduating in 2019. While at school, Goodman gathered valuable experience as an anchor and reporter on NNN SportsNight and played on the club baseball team. Goodman previously interned at MLB.com as an associate reporter covering the Miami Marlins. He also interned with ESPN, working as an associate reporter on Mike Greenberg's Get Up. Goodman is from New York City. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen. Follow Goodman on Twitter @MaxTGoodman and connect with him via email by reaching out at maxgoodmansports@gmail.com.

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