Jonathan Taylor — Week 1: Nineteen of Twenty Carries, and a Fumble
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Taylor carried nineteen times for ninety-eight yards and two touchdowns — from the one in the first quarter and from the three in the second — and Indianapolis ran the ball twenty times. He caught three of four targets for twenty-three yards, and the second catch, fourteen yards by the description, was punched out by Marlon Humphrey at the Indianapolis forty-eight; the Ravens scored on the third snap after it in a 41–23 win.
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Jonathan Taylor's first touchdown of 2026 came from a yard away — second and one at the Baltimore one, 10 36 left in the first quarter, no score, around the right end — and the extra point sailed wide right, which is why the Colts led six to nothing and not seven. His second was the harder one: third and three at the Baltimore three, two 18 left in the half, down 28 to six, right tackle, three yards. That one was worth +2.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and it was the only one of the Colts' 10 third downs that a run converted.
Between those two came the play the Ravens turned into 14 points. First and 10 at the Indianapolis 34, six 47 left in the half, down 21 to six: Daniel Jones short left to Taylor for 14 yards, and Marlon Humphrey jarred it loose at the 48 and recovered it at the 47. −4.7 expected points, and the whole of the −5 on Taylor's four targets is that play. On the third snap after it Derrick Henry ran 32 yards for a touchdown. The other catches were two yards and eight yards; the one incompletion was short left on first down from the Indianapolis 20.
The ground line: 19 carries, 98 yards, two touchdowns, seven first downs, a long of 21, five carries of 10 or more, nine of the 19 successful. +2.2 expected points on the carries. 11 carries for 32 yards before halftime, eight for 66 after, with 18 off left tackle on the first snap of the Colts' first third-quarter drive and 21 off right tackle from his own four with four 24 left in the third, followed by 12 behind the right guard on the next play. The rest of that drive went nowhere — four yards, −1, a third-down incompletion, punt.
Indianapolis ran 20 times. Taylor had 19; the other was a Daniel Jones scramble. Nobody else on the Colts carried the ball. A game that was 22 points apart in the second quarter still left him 22 touches, second on the field to Henry's 25.
Back in June the preview's read on Taylor was an RB2 season built on a workhorse deployment — 20 points a game over 17 games — and a warning that the market was paying for the touchdowns when the carries were the durable part. Sunday the carries were his, 19 of 20 with the other a quarterback scramble, and the touchdowns came from the one and the three. The fumble is the thing the preview did not price, and one game does not tell you whether to. Indianapolis is at the Chiefs on Sunday night the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Jonathan Taylor's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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