Make no mistake: Jonathan Taylor saved the Broncos’ playoff hopes

DENVER — The Denver Broncos couldn’t chase down Jonathan Taylor on Sunday, and as he galloped away from their grasping defense, it seemed as if the fifth-year running back was potentially erasing the Broncos’ clear path to their first postseason excursion in nine years.

After a first half in which the Indianapolis Colts running back ran for 53 yards and had two double-digit gains on third downs, he burst through the right flank of the line and was out of reach. Touchdown, Colts, and a 20-7 lead that seemed difficult to overcome given the Broncos’ scattershot form to that point in the proceedings.

“I mean, for sure, touchdown. Because I mean, he has some jets,” safety P.J. Locke said. “He has some freaking jets.”

Indeed, it seemed as though Taylor left nothing but a vapor trail.

But then came the realization: He left the football, too. And with it, he left the Colts’ hopes of reshuffling the deck on the race for the No. 7 wild-card spot.

Firmly in control of the proceedings until that point, the Colts never scored again.

The Broncos’ turnaround en route to a 31-13 win wasn’t immediate and complete; the offense stalled and punted four plays later, and followed that with a pair of series that didn’t net a first down. But in the meantime, Locke and the defense held Indianapolis to four series without a first down, buying time for the other two phases of the team to round into playmaking form.

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Denver still trailed heading into the fourth quarter. But the defense’s dominance bought time for the special teams and offense to round into playmaking form. When they did, punctuated by a 60-yard Marvin Mims Jr. punt return that set up Bo Nix’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Nate Adkins two plays later, Denver seized the lead for the first time, and after Nik Bonitto foiled the Colts’ ill-advised attempt at trickery 88 seconds later, the game was firmly in the Broncos’ grasp.

All because Taylor decided to celebrate a split-second too soon. Without that stroke of luck …

“It’s a different ballgame, man,” Locke said. “Everybody’s calling plays different at this point. They’re in, like a time management where they just running the ball and controlling the game. And we can’t run the ball as much as we want to. Controlling our game. [Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph] has to get a little bit more aggressive, so, it’s a lot. It’s a lot.”

Instead, by the fourth quarter, Joseph called knowing that the Colts were in comeback mode. After Taylor’s fumble, four Colts drives ended in Denver takeaways.

“Whenever we can get a lead and we can get after guys, you know, that’s what we do best,” edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said. “That’s why we top of the league and sacks and pressures.

All because Jonathan Taylor did something that would have been a mortal sin under Sean Payton’s watch.

“You know,” said Mims, “Coach Payton’s real strict about that.”

ON SEAN PAYTON’S BRONCOS, DROPPING THE BALL LIKE THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE

It isn’t simply that Jonathan Taylor did make the mistake — one that is decidedly out of character for him. A high-I.Q player, Taylor is smart enough to know better — and after the game, he was remorseful.

But with the Indianapolis Colts, an environment exists where such a high-school Harry celebration of a score is acceptable.

Had one of Sean Payton’s Broncos done that …

“If we were in an away game, [you] probably would be catching a commercial flight by yourself home,” tight end Adam Trautman said after a long pause and a smirk.

“You wouldn’t want to be a part of that.”

Hell would hath no fury like Payton after such nonchalance removes points from the scoreboard.

“I would not want to have a conversation with Coach Payton after doing something like that,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “… I don’t even want to imagine what that conversation would be like if one of us would have did that.”

Would any Broncos player receive any kind of grace?

“I mean, some guys would have more leeway than others. Courtland Sutton would have way more leeway than me,” Mims said. “But I think I’d be done for the game — unless it was special teams or something. Offensively, that’s it.”

Not so fast, counters Sutton.

“I probably wouldn’t be talking to y’all boys right now, to be honest,” he said.

“I think I saw an interview of [Colorado Buffaloes] Coach [Deion Sanders] saying that if one of them boys do that, they might as well keep running because they’re not going to be on the team no more.”

 

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Because what could celebration have been better dropping the ball while crossing the goal line?

Literally anything!

At least in the context of what avails itself within the confines of a football field. Even celebrations that spur unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties after crossing the goal line still result in points on the scoreboard.

What could possibly be the appeal?

“I truly have no idea,” defensive end John Franklin-Myers said.

Somehow, it was reassuring to know that within the locker room, players were as baffled as I was.

“I mean, if I score a touchdown, I can promise you that is either getting punted in the stands or I’m collecting every single touchdown ball I have,” Franklin-Myers continued. “So, I don’t understand. But I’m not a running back and I don’t score. I haven’t scored 100 touchdowns in my career. So maybe — I don’t know. [Excrement], I don’t know.”

Added edge rusher Jonathon Cooper: “I have no idea, man. You would think after seeing it so many times they would stop doing that, but as you can see today, they’re still going on.”

Fortunately for the Broncos, it happened again.

“I’ve always seen it on social media, but I’ve never been in the game where it happened,” Locke said. “And I was like, ‘Golly, that’s crazy.’ Yeah, that’s all I kept saying: ‘That is crazy.'”

Somehow, crazy seems apt for a Broncos season that continues to defy the predictions of pundits as baffled by their success as the Broncos were themselves by Taylor giving them the biggest Christmas gift under their tree.