How the Colts Run Game Keeps Defenses Off Balance

The Colts had one of the best running games in the NFL last season, finishing 2nd in rushing yards per game and per attempt. That’ll happen when you have a running back like Jonathan Taylor and a very good offensive line. However, it was their ability to keep defenses from trusting what they were seeing that took their rushing attack to another level.

The Colts are a predominant zone-running team. They were almost 2-to-1 zone-to-gap in 2021 in fact, according to Pro Football Focus. If defenses can key on a tendency like this, then stopping the run obviously becomes easier.

So the Colts add in wrinkles to keep defenses guessing, which not only forces confusion and hesitation at times, but it also leads to some big plays. That might at least partially explain why the Colts led the NFL in runs of 20 or more yards last season.

One concept that Indianapolis loves to use is the Influence Wham, which is a trap concept. This type of play is designed to get linebackers moving away from the direction of the run and to allow blockers to quickly get up to the second level.

Here’s an example from the Colts’ blowout win over the Bills in Week 11 last season. First, you can see the mechanics of the play below. Notice the tight end and both guards pulling and trapping along the line of scrimmage away from the direction of the run:

The pulling action got three second level defenders to move with them:

And because both tackles and the center immediately climbed to the second level, the Colts were able to wall off the inside. There wasn’t a defender anywhere near Taylor at the second level when it was all said and done:

The only element remaining was the tight end’s trap or Wham block that did just enough to graze the defensive tackle, who was coming in through the B-Gap untouched:

Here is the full play in all its glory:

It is pretty amazing that this run was clearly going to the offense’s right at the snap just based on the backfield action. And yet those second-level defenders, keying on the guards and tight end, were influenced completely out of the play:

That’s a great way to keep linebackers from trusting what they’re seeing the rest of the game, especially if they’re keying on the guards. The Colts ran this play multiple times against Buffalo. They ultimately racked up 264 yards and 4 TDs on the ground and finished the day with 41 points.

Here’s another example of the Influence Wham from the Colts’ 2021 season. The wrinkle here was that Taylor’s initial step in the backfield was in the same direction as both guards, which sold the run to the left initially. The influence still worked in the same way: