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INDIANAPOLIS – Remember those days, not that long ago, when it was a miracle if a Colts running back got 50 rushing yards in a game?

Now a game doesn’t go by without Jonathan Taylor doing that, and scoring a touchdown.

Although Taylor—the MVP candidate who wears No. 28 for the Colts—sure came close to having that now 11-game TD streak end on Saturday.

Taylor made an MVP statement to a national television audience on Saturday night in sealing a Colts’ victory that fans are going to remember for years to come.

Desperately needing Taylor to ice a game that had narrowed to 20-17 with 2 minutes remaining, the league’s leading rusher did just that.

Carson Wentz wasn’t getting it done on Saturday night.

Therefore, it was up to Taylor to make sure the Colts were going to hold on.

On a 2nd-and-8 with 2:11 remaining, Taylor got some space behind Quenton Nelson, but veteran Patriots defenders LB-Dont’a Hightower and S-Devin McCourty were still waiting in a hole that would have likely set-up a 3rd down.

But one Taylor cut to the right saw Hightower and McCourty whiff and there was the second-year running back into the open field, with 66,000 and change roaring him into the end zone.

With that 67-yarder, Taylor sent a message to the entire NFL—as a legit MVP candidate with 3 games to go.

In a year in which no quarterback has ascended to a peak above the rest, Taylor has built a legit resume and Saturday contributed to that.

On a night with the Colts getting zero help from their passing offense, it was Taylor’s legs that accounted for 61.8 percent of the Indy total offense.

That’s an eye-popping number.

While the TD-scamper to send everyone to bed was the Taylor highlight, he also bullied his way on the first TD drive of the game.

Taylor had runs of 11, 4, 6, 4, 5 and 3 (on a 3rd-and-1) yards, routinely moving the pile, on a TD drive that was capped by Nyheim Hines.

How important was Taylor to the Colts on Saturday? He played 51-of-52 snaps and that 98 percent of the team’s offensive snaps percentage blows away any amount he had coming into this game (he’d never been over 85 percent in a game for his career). In today’s NFL, no running back plays all but one of his team’s offensive snaps. Taylor was the only running back to have a carry for the Colts.

It was the Colts making a statement that in the most important game of the season, their best player wasn’t coming off the field.

And when things got dicey late, Taylor showed the entire nation that his name needs to be on any MVP list.

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