Frank Reich made it clear from the moment he accepted the Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Colts coaching job that he wanted to build around a strong ground game.He might finally have the foundation.Since returning from a lingering hamstring injury https://www.coltsfanshop.com/hats , Marlon Mack has turned heads, piled up numbers and given the Colts’ offense a more balanced look. He helped Indy snap a four-game losing streak Sunday and if he keeps it up, Mack could help the Colts win more games this season.“He’s explosive. He turns a 5-yard run into a 15 or 20-yard run,” Reich said after Sunday’s 37-5 rout of Buffalo. “(He’s) an excellent inside and outside runner, so (we are) really glad to have him back in the mix.”The Colts (2-5) envisioned Mack fitting perfectly into this role.They drafted him in the fourth round in 2017, believing South Florida’s career rushing leader would eventually start after spending one season as the understudy to Frank Gore, the NFL’s No. 4 career rusher.At training camp this summer, team owner Jim Irsay projected Mack could run for 1,500 yards this season — a feat only one NFL player achieved over the past three seasons and an astoundingly high number in the era of rotating running backs.But Mack showed everyone what he could do the past two weeks.After missing four of Indy’s first five games, he returned against the New York Jets and ran 12 times for 89 yards just 2 short of his career high. On Sunday against the Bills defense, ranked No. 3 overall at the time, he had 19 carries for 126 yards and one touchdown while catching two passes for 33 yards and another score.Suddenly, he and the Colts looked as if they could start alleviating the heavy early season workload on Andrew Luck’s repaired right shoulder.“The middle three guys were definitely moving some people and when that happens, you get gaps in there and Marlon was setting up guys pretty well Indianapolis Colts Hoodie ,” longtime left tackle Anthony Castonzo said Tuesday. “The good thing is it wasn’t perfect so we can still get better.”Mack is still getting on the same page with a relatively young offensive line.Center Ryan Kelly was Indy’s first-round pick in 2016 and has returned to his rookie form after missing most of last season because of injuries. The Colts (2-5) have seen left guard Quenton Nelson, the No. 6 overall pick, settle into his new gig and believe he can emerge as a perennial Pro Bowler if he stays healthy.Braden Smith, a second-round pick this spring, took advantage of injuries to crack the starting lineup sooner than anticipated and appears to have found a home at right tackle. Castonzo, a first-round pick in 2011, just turned 30 in August and 26-year-old Mark Glowinski has filled in admirably at right guard since Matt Slauson went down with a season-ending back injury in Week 5.The result: Luck has only been sacked once in his past 125 attempts and the offensive line is increasingly creating creases Mack can burst through.“Marlon, he is patient and he’s able to predict where guys end up based on the structure of the defense,” offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni said. “Marlon just has a unique vision quality and he can really hit it when it’s time to hit it. It’s like he’s patient setting up the block, but he has that acceleration to hit the hole before they can get off on him.”Right now, it looks as if it’s a perfect combination.Mack already has flirted with back-to-back 100-yard games, something the Colts haven’t achieved since October and November 2007 when Joseph Addai went for 100 and 112 yards against Carolina and New England.This week, against the Raiders’ No. 27-ranked run defense, Mack hopes to add his name to the list.“It’s just something to build upon. The offensive line and us coming together and working hard Clayton Geathers Jersey ,” Mack said after Sunday’s game. “It (a 100-yard game) is a great thing as a running back that you want to have for your career.” Every week, I will present a summary of some basic and advanced stats for the Colts performance relative to the league. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com and the nflSCrapR project for being awesome sources of weekly data.The relationship between an NFL offense and the defense it faces is complementary and interconnected. It is a yin and yang where each is dependent upon and defines the other.So, it is difficult to say if last Sunday was an outstanding Indy defense or a horrible Jacksonville offense. The answer may just be the sound of one hand clapping.And for those who want me to stop conflating disparate eastern philosophies, I can safely say that was Zen and this is Tao. Alternatively, we can just look at the stats and see that the defense put up some remarkable numbers.Jacksonville was allowed into Indy territory only twice all day and they earned just 11 first downs. Throw in 3 sacks and a takeaway and you get a 50% Drive Success Rate, which is actually worse than what the Jags defense did to the Colts. TEAM TOTALSOf the 384 games so far this year, a 50% DSR ranks 8th lowest and easily puts the Indy D as the best defensive effort of the week.They also finished at the top of the pile in First Down % against.The Colts held the Jags to just 0.5 adjusted points per drive, which is the second best effort for the week, eclipsed only by. . . oh right, Jacksonville blanking Indy. PASSINGGiving up a 4.9 ANY/A is actually pretty good pass defense but a lot of teams managed that this week so the ranking is just “meh”. But with 3 sacks, no TDs and just 1 explosive pass play, Cody Kessler could not move the ball through the air as only 26% of his passes earned a new set of downs (6th lowest).While Kessler did attain a high 75% completion rate, that is mostly explained by how short his passes were.1.9 avg air yards per completion was the shortest in the league this week. The last time around the Jags hung 9.9 Yards After the Catch on the Colts https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Denzelle-Good-Jersey , but this week, it was limited to 6.4. That is still a big number but somewhat forgivable as really short passes tend to have inflated YAC. RUSHINGWith 2.9 Yards per Carry and a 18% weighted Rush Success Rate, the Colts completely shut down the Jags run game.It was the 3rd best effort of the week with the top spot going to . . . oh right, Jacksonville . . . crap. CONCLUSIONS & NEXT MATCH-UPI know a lot of people will be hesitant to give the Colts D any credit as Jacksonville’s offensewas severely hobbled. But in those situations, a good defense should keep their opponents out of the end zone and quickly get the ball back to their offense and that’s exactly what the Colts did. This coming Sunday, the defense will be tested by Deshaun Watson, best known as Joe the policeman on the “What’s Goin’ Down” episode of “That’s My Momma”.Houston has been putting up basically league average numbers over the last 4 games, but they have walked away with W’s in all of them. On the year, their pass game ranks 9th in ANY/A and the run game is 25th in wRSR.So, on paper that looks to be a rough day for the Colts through the air but they should be better able to stop the run. TRAILING 5 WEEK TOTALSSEASON TOTALS (per game)