Doyel: Chris Ballard's unlikely roster has Colts nearing playoffs with win vs. Pittsburgh
The quarterback had been living in a van, one running back started the season on injured reserve in Green Bay, and the other was on injured reserve in Philadelphia. The receiver? Don’t ask me where D.J. Montgomery started the season, but I can tell you where he ended the last one: With the Michigan Panthers of the USFL. Ever heard of the Michigan Panthers? Me neither, but didn’t the USFL go out of business?
These are the questions you ask as you consider the 2023 Indianapolis Colts and their most recent victory, their most impressive and outlandish and mind-blowing win yet, this 30-13 demolition of a Pittsburgh Steelers team that has elite talent across the board and a future Hall of Fame coach and was thoroughly outplayed – and completely outcoached – by this bizarrely beautiful Colts roster and their first-year coach, Shane Steichen.
Colts score: Colts score final 30 points vs. Steelers, move closer to playoffs
Colts news: Ten thoughts on Colts' win, starting with those QB's and RB's
At some point we’re going to need give Colts general manager Chris Ballard his roses, because he’s the one who put together this 8-6 team, this team barreling toward the playoffs, by digging through the recycling bins in Green Bay and Philadelphia and whatever Michigan city is home to the Panthers. He’s the one who saw more in free agent defensive end Samson Ebukam than Ebukam probably saw in himself after his first six nondescript NFL seasons, and Ballard’s the one who drafted Dayo Odeyingbo in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft knowing Odeyingbo had suffered a ruptured Achilles’ tendon and wouldn’t be himself until his third NFL season.
Colts news: How Dayo Odeyingbo found fury and became an international force
This is Odeyingbo’s third season, and he has eight sacks, but let’s see where that tally ends up. He had 1½ sacks Saturday, giving him 6½ in the last six games. Hurricane Dayo, as he’s called, has rolled ashore and he’s gaining strength. So is Ebukam, who leads this team with 9½ sacks, more than he had in any of his best two previous seasons combined. Ebukam also had 1½ sacks Saturday.
That defensive front made life so miserable for the Steelers, coach Mike Tomlin and his two Super Bowl rings spent the second half silently stewing on the sideline, shaking his head slowly – no-o-o-o-o – until he’d had enough and benched quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Some people, dolts and killjoys – not you – are surely asking: What’s so impressive about a Colts win against a team starting Mitch Trubisky?
Look at it this way, you dolts: Trubisky was the No. 2 overall pick in 2017. The guy the Colts started at quarterback Saturday? He was the No. 178 pick in 2019. He spends his offseasons in a van outside a gym in Bonita Springs, Fla.
And that guy – Gardner Minshew is his name – just threw for three touchdowns against Pittsburgh as the Colts moved one step closer to the 2023 NFL playoffs.
Michael Pittman Jr., Zack Moss suffer dirty Steelers hits
Minshew has been playing only because the Colts’ franchise quarterback, Anthony Richardson, is out for the season after shoulder surgery. Running back Zack Moss has been playing only because franchise running back Jonathan Taylor has a thumb injury, and then Moss was injured by a dirty hit Saturday as he scored a touchdown, forcing Trey Sermon into action. Sermon got so tired, running it down the Steelers’ throats, the Colts went to Tyler Goodson.
Goodson then ran it down the Steelers’ throats.
Sermon’s the one from Philadelphia. Goodson’s from Green Bay. Unless it’s the other way around. Whatever the case, they ran for a combined 157 yards on 28 carries, most of that in the second half, and nearly half of it on one drive alone – a 14-play, 70-yard masterpiece that consumed nine of the game’s final 18 minutes. By the time that drive was finished, leading to a field goal, the Colts led 27-13 and just 9:17 remained and Mike Tomlin was all: no-o-o-o-o.
Sermon and Goodson were summoned after Moss’ 16-yard touchdown ended terribly, with Steelers linebacker Mykal Walker hanging from Moss, pulling him down from the back of his jersey’s neck opening. A horse-collar tackle, you call that play, and it’s been banned because it’s so dangerous to the offensive player. Normally the injury is to a leg, but Walker’s illegal hit injured Moss’ arm.
Walker’s tackle was dirty, but Steelers defensive back Damontae Kazee basically said: Hold my beer.
Two snaps by the Colts after Walker ended Moss’ day, Kazee could’ve ended Michael Pittman Jr.’s life. Think I’m exaggerating? Watch that replay. Kazee launches himself into Pitt, the highly respected Colts receiver, as Pittman is diving for the ball. Kazee’s shoulder makes contact with Pittman’s sternum, bending Pittman backward in a way the human body isn’t meant to bend. Had Kazee landed a few inches higher, he wouldn’t have dug into Pittman’s sternum, but Pitt’s neck.
Any idea how that could’ve ended?
Normally officials study replays for a moment before deciding what to do with a hit as violent as Kazee’s, but the officials Saturday didn’t wait.
They ejected Kazee on the spot, which makes me happy. Kazee jogged off the field, into the tunnel, as Lucas Oil Stadium booed his dirty (expletive) off the field.
Which makes me happier.
Fool around and find out, Kazee. You too, Steelers. So much dirty, and then Tomlin – down three scores – wouldn’t let the Colts win with the class and safety the Colts wanted. The Colts had the ball with 1:42 left, enough time for three snaps, three kneel-downs by Minshew, and then the postgame shower. Only, Tomlin called his last remaining timeouts, making the Colts run two more plays, carries by Sermon and Goodson, into the teeth of Tomlin’s dirty defense.
Sermon and Goodson emerged with their bones intact. The only thing splintered was Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes.
Which makes me happiest.
Gardner Minshew driving this bus toward playoffs
It’s impressive, really, what these Colts are doing. Second-team quarterback, running backs from Goodwill, Tarleton State’s E.J. Speed with a game-high 10 tackles, playing linebacker only because longtime Pro Bowler Shaq Leonard’s game fell off a cliff, and backup 6-0 safety Nick Cross outjumping 6-3 Steelers receiver George Pickens for an interception.
But this D.J., Montgomery character, well, he takes the cake.
It’s not just that Montgomery played last season for the Michigan … Mustangs, was it? He’s also been sent packing by the Browns, Jets and Texans, three of the stoogiest franchises in the league, which is how he ended up in a time machine that took him to the USFL. How did he end up with the Colts? Ballard and his scouts. They don’t sleep.
But that’s not the best part of the Montgomery story. The best part happened Saturday, when he dropped an easy touchdown pass late in the first half on fourth-and-goal.
Well, OK, that’s not the best part. The best part is what came next. On the Colts’ next drive, starting at their 26 with 44 seconds left in the half, Minshew went back to Montgomery with his next pass. Montgomery caught it and gained 34 yards. After a pass interference penalty against the Steelers’ Joey Porter Jr. put the ball at the Pittsburgh 14, Minshew found Montgomery again, this time for the touchdown he’d dropped minutes earlier.
Montgomery stood and roared as the crowd roared with him. The Colts, who’d trailed 13-0 after starting the game so poorly I refuse to mention it – OK, they missed a field goal and had a punt blocked and made Trubisky look like a real quarterback for a few minutes – now led 14-13, and the rout was on.
It helped that the Steelers, so out of control that they injured two Colts starters on back-to-back pass attempts, committed eight penalties for 101 yards. The Colts, looking so much better coached, had two penalties for 10 yards. Steichen also worked the clock like a wizard while Tomlin had the bright idea to punt, down 14 points with 18 minutes left, from the Colts’ 39. That backfired which, take a guess, makes me happy.
Meanwhile, Steichen was jumping on the Steelers when they were down, taking advantage of an unlikely momentum swing – Speed accidentally forced a fumble with his knee early in the third quarter, which the Colts recovered at the Pittsburgh 18 – by going for a touchdown on the next play. And Minshew delivered, finding former VCU power forward Mo Alie-Cox.
Minshew has had an erratic season, but this was one of the finest games of his career. His 123.4 passer rating is his third-best in 45 NFL games, and he’s stuck around the league not because of his arm or athletic ability. He sticks around because he works at it, living recent offseasons in a converted prison van – yeah, I’m serious – outside his private coach’s gym in southwest Florida.
That’s the guy driving the Colts toward the playoffs, sharing the ball with a ragtag cast of characters that have no business making it into the 2023 NFL playoffs. But watch them get there anyway.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts vs. Steelers: Minshew, no-name players lead Colts near playoffs
