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It was referred to as egregious.
It was referred to as disrespectful.
But there’s now one other technique to describe the Indianapolis Colts’ choice to rent Jeff Saturday as their interim head coach.
Undefeated.
After every week of criticism from all corners of the NFL world, Saturday took the sphere as an NFL head coach for the primary time on Sunday, and guided the Colts to their fourth win of the season, a 25-20 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.
The victory got here with a returning face below heart for the Colts. After the staff benched Matt Ryan instead of second-year passer Sam Ehlinger, Saturday made the choice to return Ryan to the beginning lineup for Sunday’s sport.
Ryan responded by finishing 21 of 28 passes for 222 yards and a landing in his first sport again within the beginning lineup That scoring play got here with simply over 5 minutes remaining within the sport, giving the Colts the lead for good:
Ryan hits Campbell in stride on the in-breaking route, and the receiver does the remaining, as he runs by, round and thru the secondary for the go-ahead rating.
The veteran quarterback additionally had a 39-yard scramble just a few performs earlier than the landing strike to Campbell, a run that Saturday would describe as “lighting” after the victory:
Las Vegas would drive down the sphere and attain the purple zone, however a fourth-down cross from Derek Carr to Davante Adams was damaged up by Stephon Gilmore, preserving the victory:
After the sport Colts proprietor Jim Irsay, who got here below fireplace for each the choice to call Saturday the interim coach, and his efficiency on the introductory press convention, had nothing however reward for his new head coach:
Colts operating again Jonathan Taylor, who had 22 carries for 147 yards and a landing, additionally had reward for Saturday and his management:
As for Saturday himself, as he addressed the Colts within the locker room after the victory, he introduced up Parks Frazier, the younger assistant Saturday tapped to name the offensive performs. Then Irsay introduced Saturday with a sport ball from his first NFL win:
One of the arguments superior for Saturday as a head coach was the concept as a former participant, he would get the purchase in obligatory from the locker room to achieve success.
Maybe there’s something to that.
Because on the finish of the locker room celebration, the brand new head coach then mentioned the 2 phrases each NFL participant desires to listen to on a Sunday.
“Victory Monday.”
Could this work out in spite of everything?