The Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers are locked in a tight battle on Monday Night Football. Philip Rivers is balling out for Indianapolis as his team flounders and needs to win games to try to salvage its playoff spot, which it has squandered. They trail by a touchdown in the second quarter, and they’ll need to get their star RB, Jonathan Taylor, involved more in the offense.
Jonathan Taylor’s Slow Start
Taylor’s first half of the season was unreal. However, he hasn’t been the same player since Daniel Jones went down, and his weaker performances align with the Colts’ overall struggles.
At halftime, Taylor didn’t see much of a change in his performance in the later parts of the second quarter. He’s up to seven carries for 24 yards and three catches for 33 yards. This is not up to his standard, and he’ll need to find a way to punish San Francisco.
They need him to take over the game against a scrappy 49ers defense that is playing for the higher Wild Card seed, to have a chance to face the NFC South winner. Moreover, the 49ers still have a path to winning the NFC West division by winning out.
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Fantasy managers are relying on their star RB to put up big numbers to win them weeks. After his early-season dominance, managers will be hoping for one more of those weeks.
Taylor is the second-best running back in PFSN’s RB Impact metric. His impact score of 90.5 trails only James Cook. The Colts have relied on Taylor to carry their offense in many instances. He’s had five games where he’s found the end zone three times, which shows that he is a dominant force who has hit a rough patch. However, Taylor needs to figure it out in the second half to keep the Colts’ playoff hopes alive.
The Colts put all their chips on the table for this year’s playoff run. After a 7-1 start, everything looked perfect. They acquired Sauce Gardner, despite paying a hefty price, and Daniel Jones was balling.
Now, they’ve lost four in a row, and Rivers is their quarterback. A loss today dooms their playoff chances to near zero, and they’ll have to look to retool in the offseason without their first-round selections for the next two seasons.
Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
