When Anthony Richardson suffered his season-ending shoulder injury in Week 5, the Indianapolis Colts season looked toast. The Colts were 3-2 at the time after taking down their division rival in the Tennessee Titans, but they would go on to lose their next three games and move to 3-5 on the season. Things were looking bleak. But then, a weird thing happened. The Colts have now won three straight games to improve to 6-5 on the season. If the season ended today, they would find themselves in the playoffs with the last wild-card spot. It has been a remarkable turnaround.

To be fair, the Colts have beaten the 1-10 Carolina Panthers, the 2-9 New England Patriots, and the 4-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get to the spot they're at now, but it's not their fault they're beating teams they should be beating. The latest one against the Buccaneers was gutsy. Tampa jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and cut Indianapolis' lead to just three points in the fourth quarter. But the Colts rallied and staved off the Bucs to win by a final score of 27-20. There were a lot of players who contributed with big performances in this game, but two Colts, in particular, stood out among the rest to help secure this win.

Jonathan Taylor

The value proposition of paying running backs has been questioned for years now, but Jonathan Taylor is skewing that question back in favor of the running back with how he has played recently. The Colts are now 3-1 in games that Taylor has 15 or more touches in that game. That carried over in this game, where Taylor racked up 91 yards on the ground on 15 carries and found the end zone twice. The second touchdown ultimately iced the game and put the Colts up ten with 7:30 to go in the fourth quarter.

Not that it is ever improbable for Taylor to have a big game, but his having the success that he ultimately had in this game was not necessarily expected. The Bucs entered this game with the league's best run defense in terms of EPA per rush allowed. Only one running back had run for more than 80 yards in a game against the Bucs this season: that was D'Andre Swift back in Week 3. Jonathan Taylor made it two this week.

Michael Pittman Jr.

Michael Pittman Jr. continues to fly under the radar as perhaps the league's most underrated wide receiver. All this guy does is ball out, and that's what he did in this game. Pittman saw 13 targets in this game, tied for the most on the Colts with dynamic rookie slot receiver Josh Downs. Pittman turned those 13 targets into ten receptions for 107 yards. The Colts are now 5-3 on the season when Pittman has at least eight receptions in a game.

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There really isn't anything Pittman Jr. can't do on a football field. He can play any position, whether it be outside or in the slot. He's dynamic after the catch but also can win contested catches. Colts' head coach Shane Steichen recognizes this and used it to his and the Colts' advantage. Pittman Jr. was literally everywhere on Sunday.

The matchup wasn't as daunting for Pittman Jr. as it was for Jonathan Taylor. The Bucs ranked 25th in the NFL in EPA per dropback allowed this season heading into this matchup. Still, the Colts don't have a ton of established NFL receivers and had to rely on their alpha to carry them. He did exactly that and helped the Colts snag another crucial win.