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The Colts were confident in the quick and swift offensive approach over a short week: Not only does Reich have plenty of experience working on a quick offensive attack as needed with quarterback Philip Rivers from their time with the 2013-15 San Diego Chargers, but the third-year Colts head coach is is also inspired by his experiences with another. future Hall of Fame quarterback when developing the plan for Thursday night’s game against the Titans.
Reich said he knew Peyton Manning was very successful when he had less time to prepare for a game – like in a Thursday night game – because he was so good at leading the grassroots offense, just at a much faster rate.
Reich was the Colts’ offensive assistant in 2006-08, quarterbacks coach in 2009-10 and wide receivers coach in 2011. Meanwhile, Manning’s Colts teams were 5-0 in games played Thursday night.
This time around, according to Pro Football Focus, the Colts used a tackless attack on 14 total offensive plays; Rivers was 6 for 8 for 62 yards on those plays, but there were also several other times Indy wasn’t wasting much time between plays. Reich said the faster pace “gave us a spark, good energy”, and Indy would drive that energy to a huge road 34-17 division victory.
“The guys handled it really really well,” Reich said of the quick offensive attack. “Part of that decision was that it was a short week. It was something that Philip and I talked about – what do you do when you have a short week? Well, one of the answers is – because when you don’t get stuck you tend to be a bit more basic in your play call because you don’t have as much speed change and movement and stuff like that. So let’s just run our basic games and let’s just do them with speed. It’s a change. So it made sense to do it. I had a lot of experience when I was here before with Peyton. You remember Peyton’s success on Thursday night. . There were a lot of reasons for that but it was one of them. “
Reich was delighted to see Michael Pittman Jr. show off his athleticism on Thursday: While some might have called Pittman Jr. a “possession” type catcher coming out of USC this year – and there’s nothing wrong with being a possession catcher – the Colts knew Pittman Jr. had the ability. athletic to turn a big performance.
Reich said he felt Thursday night’s game against the Titans would be an opportunity for Pittman Jr. to show off those talents, and he ended up getting it right: the 2020 second-round pick (34th overall) has had his best game to date. , with seven receptions for 101 yards (14.4 avg.), and also adding a 21-yard run on a reverse play at the end of the third quarter.
“There was a conscious effort to get him the ball the way we did,” Reich said of Pittman Jr. “We saw that back in college days. I remember it. Chris (Ballard) and I talked about it a lot, but this guy is fearless now. He’s fearless in every way, but when the ball is in his hand he wants to hurt someone. He runs very aggressively. This shallow lane he took, he turned the turn on 24 and showed speed. “
Among Pittman Jr.’s big plays on Thursday night, aside from the reverse running play, there were receptions of 40 and 30 yards, respectively. The Colts hope to see this trend continue for the rest of the season.
“It wasn’t possession stuff, it was big catcher stuff,” Reich said. “And we have to see more.”
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