[JAFF]

10 thoughts on Matt Gay, Gardner Minshew and the Colts' overtime win over the Ravens

BALTIMORE - Ten thoughts on the Colts' 22-19 overtime win to the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium:

1. Matt Gay is a hero. At least for one day. In a stadium owned by the greatest kicker in NFL history, it was suddenly not Justin Tucker nailing the 50-yard plus field goal through the wind and rain to win the game. It was Gay, nailing it from 53 yards in overtime for his fourth field goal of at least 50 yards on the day -- the most in a game in NFL history.

The Colts needed someone to lift them out of a messy road game played with a backup quarterback against a star like Lamar Jackson. Anthony Richardson wasn't here. Jonathan Taylor wasn't here. Zack Moss was banged up. But Gay stepped up and delivered a monster performance in a way a Colts kicker hasn't in several years.




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2. Once the game status reports came out on Friday, you had a feeling this was going to be a low-scoring and discombobulated game. The Colts were without Richardson and Ryan Kelly, falling down to a third-string center and immobile quarterback on the road. The Ravens had a host of players out, notably including two offensive linemen, which was going to play into the Colts' strengths up front. Add in the rain and wind, and we knew we weren't going to see a shootout.


The Ravens have a quarterback who could make things happen on the move and out of structure, which became the theme of a rainy day. Indianapolis somewhat contained big plays on defense, both on the perimeter during Lamar Jackson's scrambles and deep in coverage against deep shots. He still finished 22-of-31 for 202 yards and ran 14 times for 101 yards and two touchdowns.

3. The Colts offensive line held up for most of the day in its 1-on-1 matchups, which tracks with how that group has played through the first three games. The issues came, predictably, in handling the Ravens' bevy of blitzes on third downs as the crowd ramped up the noise and third-string center Wesley French tried to handle all the protections. Some of that fell on Gardner Minshew, though, as his struggles throwing on the move came out whenever he drifted back.


Dropping back eventually caught up to the line in the fourth quarter and overtime, when the Ravens were teeing off. It goes to show how valuable that running game is to keeping these guys fresh for the pass snaps.

4. This is who Minshew is: He can get a team pretty organized stepping in as a backup, even in adverse circumstances. He can play an efficient game within a script, throwing early, on time and on target to limit negative plays while allowing some skill players to do their thing.




But when the game falls on him, he's not likely to match a franchise quarterback on the other side. That came to a head in the fourth quarter, when that efficiency kept dropping off and the Ravens got him constantly on the move. Once they pinned the ball down at the 1-yard line on Isaiah McKenzie's questionable decision not to field a punt in the final few minutes, Minshew was trapped. He avoided one safety, but eventually the room squeezed down against the pass rush, and he stepped out of the end zone for a safety.

5. Give Minshew some credit for the final drive of the fourth quarter, bouncing back from the safety by leading a 44-yard drive with efficient and sharp decisions, including when the Ravens sent their trademark blitz with Hamilton and he lofted it over his head on a throw that let Josh Downs get out of bounds in Baltimore territory. Minshew also threw a dime down the left sideline to Alec Pierce that Brandon Stephens broke up at the final moment to force a field goal.



He isn't going to lose the game, which ended up mattering in overtime of a game this tight. This won't work week-in and week-out. But the Colts hope this is the one time they needed it, and a heroic kicking effort, a stable run game, a great defense and a safe enough backup quarterback prevailed.

6. What an incredible catch from Michael Pittman Jr. in overtime. It was 2nd-and-10, with the Ravens pass rush bearing down on Minshew, with passing yards so hard to come by and the run suffocated, and Minshew heaved a late pass down the left side and Pittman Jr. went over the defender through contact to pull down a 34-yard catch as his helmet came off.


Pittman Jr. has some other areas to fine-tune to become a No. 1 wide receiver, but he’s displayed some incredible jump-ball abilities, and that’s just not something you can go to the draft and find very easily. Something to consider as they develop Richardson and search to find him security blankets he can trust in the most chaotic of moments.



7. The Colts decided to rip the band-aid off at outside cornerback and start second-round Warren Central High School rookie JuJu Brents while making Darrell Baker Jr. inactive. That was a 180-degree reversal of the first two weeks, when Brents was a healthy scratch and the Colts didn't form even a rotation with the outside spots.

It was just time. Brents has gotten in eight of nine practices the past three weeks without any injuries. Baker Jr. had a rough day in Houston last week, when C.J. Stroud threw for 384 yards, mostly by peppering players in space and letting them run as Baker played with too much cushion. Dallis Flowers has been decent this season, but the lane is open for someone to become the Colts' top outside cornerback.

Brents' skill set is a great fit for Gus Bradley's style of defense, with his 6-foot-3 height, 36-inch arms and physical brand. And he flashed in a messy game like this by chasing down Kenyan Drake from behind, punching the ball out and recovering it along the sideline. He brought the wood on some run stops. He broke up a pass to Mark Andrews across the middle, potentially getting away with early contact, but playing in the gray is going to be his game.



Life as a rookie outside cornerback isn't always easy. This was a nice confidence boost for Brents.

8. The Colts have one of the better linebacking corps in the league, and that's still with Shaquille Leonard trying to work back to his old form. E.J. Speed is flashing on run stops and blitzes. Zaire Franklin is one of the most sure tacklers in the game who can also lay the wood.

But it remains confounding how teams can effectively get away with quarterback draws out of empty sets against them. When Jalen Hurts did it to win a game last year, Bradley took the heat, saying the issue was the call. But it happened again in this one, with Lamar Jackson facing a 3rd-and-1 from the Colts 10, and they just made it too easy for him to get into the end zone.

9. This was a heroic performance from Zack Moss, whose downhill and forward-falling style fits a messy game like this. One week after playing every running back snap against the Texans, Moss was headed for a similar day until he got up gimpy on a third-quarter run. But he gutted it out to finish with 30 carries for 122 yards, including a first-down run in overtime that gave Gay the chance at the winning field goal.



He's looking like a more-than-adequate fill-in for Jonathan Taylor, at least for now. The issue is the depth behind him, as the No. 2 back in this game was Trey Sermon, whom the Colts signed off the street last week. The other issue is the lack of explosiveness in the offense, which is as much about the entire personnel set than it is about him.

10. Moss is looking like a sneaky add-on to the trade Nyheim Hines requested a year ago. Moss's production is coming at a great time, for the Colts without Taylor and for himself in a contract year.