Jonathan Taylor vs. Bill Belichick’s Defense,…

1. The Colts stuck with the run against stacked boxes until Jonathan Taylor broke free.

Eighteen of Jonathan Taylor’s first 28 carries came with eight or more Patriots defenders in the box, per Pro Football Focus. Bill Belichick’s defense, as expected, was set up to limit Taylor’s impact while trusting its playmakers in the secondary to defend the pass.

In a sense, the strategy worked – the Colts had 13 points on offense just before the two-minute warning.

In another sense, though, the Colts got the better of the Patriots’ strategy. Taylor still had over 100 rushing yards late in the fourth quarter, and players and coaches believed if they kept pounding the run, the best running back in the NFL was going to break off an explosive play.

“With a guy like JT, that’s always something that’s on the table every time he touches the ball,” center Danny Pinter said.

And just before the two-minute warning, Taylor popped what may be one of the most memorable running plays this franchise has ever seen.

The Patriots had nine defenders in the box at the snap, knowing the Colts were going to run the ball with a three-point lead late in a game (Frank Reich, though, said he was thinking about calling a pass at that point, but decided to stick with one more run to see if Taylor could break free).

The Colts blocked the play up perfectly: Kylen Granson took care of linebacker Jamie Collins to set the front side edge, and on the back side, Jack Doyle, Mo Alie-Cox, Braden Smith and Mark Glowinski made sure Taylor didn’t have to worry about any Patriots defenders coming at him from the right.

But the first key to springing Taylor’s 67-yard touchdown was some outstanding communication between Quenton Nelson and Pinter. Nelson’s assignment was to work up to linebacker Kyle Van Noy after starting with a combo block on defensive tackle Christian Barmore with Eric Fisher. But Nelson saw Van Noy loop toward the A-gap, and in a beautiful bit of offensive line play, he told Pinter “go! go! go!” to pick up Van Noy.

Nelson switched to block defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, who Pinter initially engaged, and Pinter picked up Van Noy’s run blitz.

“Great job by Q first,” Pinter said. “They were running downhill trying to stop the run, Q communicated it and we shut it down and he bounced off.”

Between the blocks of Granson, Fisher, Nelson and Pinter, a huge hole opened for Taylor – but two Patriots defenders filled it. Safety Devin McCourty drove down fit the hole in case Taylor tried to bounce outside, and linebacker Dont’a Hightower shuttled to his right to fill the rest of the opening.

The Colts have had so much success against loaded boxes this season because, when they’re able to get seven blockers on seven defenders, it leaves a one-on-one matchup for Taylor – and, time and time again, the NFL’s leading rusher makes those guys miss.

Hightower, on this run, was his latest victim.

And 67 yards later, the Colts sealed their biggest win of the season.