The Indianapolis Colts’ coaches all come back to the same moment. Anthony Richardson, ball in his hands, three starts into his NFL career, and having just started a comeback from a 23-point deficit against a playoff-bound Los Angeles Rams team. The rookie was front-and-center after a listless first half by the home team, a start he’d somehow compartmentalized, and, after capping a four-play, 74-yard drive to cut the Rams’ lead to 23–6, Indy needed him to put on a cape.
The team’s 21-year-old Superman of an athlete obliged.
“We draw up a pass play, and we spend all week trying to give these schematic advantages to the players,” Indianapolis offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter explains. “So we draw up his pass play, it just doesn’t work. It’s totally covered. The ball gets snapped and we, on the sideline, are just kind of like, ‘S—, we got nothing here for him.’ And he made it all happen.
“He freaking dipped, dived, ducked, dodged all over the place and somehow found Zack Moss over there to the side.”
“That two-point play was just an incredible athletic play,” affirms Colts head coach Shane Steichen. “But even in that game, for a rookie, to lead that comeback? I know we lost in overtime, but to be down 23 and come back and tie it up at 23 was pretty darn impressive. He made some big-time throws.”
The play looked like a simple scramble play. Digging into it, though, illuminates the reality—and hope—it represented. At the snap, Aaron Donald blew up the protection and was in the backfield. Sensing that, Richardson quickly and aggressively stepped up in the pocket, allowing Donald to overrun him, then slid left past L.A.’s two other interior rushers, Jonah Williams and Bobby Brown III toward the left sideline.
Rams linebacker Ernest Jones IV then closed on the quarterback, leaving Moss open in the flat. Richardson deftly drew Jones in, then flipped an exaggerated shuffle-pass-looking forward lateral to the tailback, who was waiting for it by the pylon.
It sparked the team. As Steichen said, the Colts forced overtime. Even if they did wind up losing that afternoon at home, that certain type of hope came alive that afternoon.
A week later, it was all over, with Richardson’s shoulder blown out and the rookie set for surgery.
The 6'4", 244-pound monster is back now, with just four professional starts and a shoulder reconstruction under his belt. His rookie year, of course, was anything but conventional. It’s possible all of us, Richardson included, will look back on it and say how it played out was a blessing in disguise. Or it could be a harbinger of less-favorable things to come.
Either way, if things go haywire it won’t be for lack of trying. The Colts have been creative. Richardson has kept his head down. In The MMQB Lead for the third week in May, we’re going to show you their blueprint.
