INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Colts will be without their top two running backs for Sunday’s key AFC South meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Jonathan Taylor (ankle) and Nyheim Hines (concussion) have been downgraded to out. Each was questionable on Friday’s status report.
Taylor will miss a second straight game with an injury to his right ankle while Hines will miss the first game of his five-year career. He had appeared in all 73 games, including the playoffs, since being selected in the fourth round of the 2018 draft.
Hines suffered a concussion on the third play of the Thursday night overtime win at Denver. He practiced on a limited basis this week, but wasn’t able to complete all of the necessary steps in the NFL’s concussion protocol.
To compensate for the absences of Taylor the team elevated Phillip Lindsay and D’Vonte Price to the active roster. They’ll join Deon Jackson in the backfield.
In the win over the Broncos, Jackson set career highs with 62 yards on 13 rushes and 29 yards on four receptions. Lindsay added 40 yards on 11 attempts.
The Colts’ run game showed signs of life by generating 106 yards on 26 attempts. In the previous three games, it averaged 58 yards per game and 2.8 per attempt.
“The run game showed a little bit of glimmer last week,’’ Frank Reich said. “So we were excited about that. The way we keep run-efficiency score, that’s still not at the level that we’re used to having it, but we did have some explosive runs.
“This is a great test this week because we know this is a great run defense that we’re about to face. So, really good opportunity to see where we’re at.’’
The Jaguars’ defense ranks 6th in fewest yards allowed per game (98.2) and 4th in yards per attempt (3.7).
In its 24-0 win over the Colts in week 2, Jacksonville allowed just 54 rushing yards on 13 attempts.
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