Insider: 19 thoughts on Jonathan Taylor, Frank Reich, more from Colts' 41-15 win over Bills

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Ten quick thoughts from the Colts' 41-15 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at Highmark Stadium:

1. The Colts' game script in this one was fantastic. That's not a new thing for Frank Reich, but his knowledge of this established Buffalo defense came in handy to score the first opening-drive touchdown they've allowed all season. In the rain and against a ball-hawking secondary, he went to Jonathan Taylor for four straight runs behind Colts combo blocks for a 3-yard touchdown, and then he came back to his star back with a play-action roll-out throw back to him to expose a Bills linebacking corps missing Tremaine Edmunds.

Jonathan Taylor leads the NFL in rushing

2. Taylor entered the game in a tie with an injured Derrick Henry for the NFL's rushing lead. And then he let zero doubt he was the best player on the field in Buffalo. After a workmanlike first half with 19 touches and three touchdowns, he broke out his patented sideline breakaway run on the second drive of the third quarter for 40 yards. On two straight run plays, he broke four tackles, mainly via stiff-arm, to become the first Colts back with four touchdowns in a game since Joseph Addai in 2006. And Taylor had five. To go along with 185 yards on 32 carries.

3. Nyheim Hines got to sit next to Taylor all game and watch him soak in a historic performance as one of the only people who wasn't surprised. "I was a fan today, watching him," Hines said. "He's remarkable. It was great to watch him go out there and finish runs and make people miss in space. He's the complete package as a running back."

4. The Bills entered this game No. 1 in just about every defensive metric you can find but had faced the worst opposing passing and running games. They're a good defense with established players and coaches, but the Colts delivered a humbling blow to them in the run game. Buffalo lined up ready for Taylor to get the ball again and again, but Indianapolis' interior was moving the front and Taylor was stiff-arming defenders as if they didn't belong on the field. The Colts ran 46 times for 265 yards and five scores. That's a testament to the Colts' building identity -- that good teams can know what's coming and still can't stop it.

Colts finding their identity

5. Taylor spoke about that identity after the game. "The Colts offense's identity is all of us all together. Everything that you saw today was the culmination of the defense getting the ball back to us, creating turnovers, and then the offense playing on one accord."

6. He's right. The Colts didn't just draft a superstar back; they have committed to building around him. You will see that in the extension they give to Quenton Nelson after his rookie deal ends next season. He and center Ryan Kelly are two first-round picks on the interior creating the combo blocks for Taylor to play in a zone running style that allows him to pick out lanes and hit the accelerator. It allows a team to carry explosive plays in dreary weather and in road environments like Buffalo where communication for the passing game is difficult.

7. This is a sign of the growth the Colts have been looking for, of a dome team finding its sea legs away from home. "I was thinking about that the whole game," Reich said. He would know; he spent nine years as the backup quarterback in Buffalo, and he won a Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator of an Eagles team that won two January games in Philadelphia in 2017.

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8. Taylor running wild, even to the tune of five touchdowns, is not a shock. The Colts defense holding Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs down in their own building is. Two weeks ago when the Jaguars held them to six points, it was mostly because their Josh Allen wrecked the blindside of their line and took Buffalo out of most play designs. What the Colts did was just good, sound defense across the board. They gave up some yards between the 30s, but they consistently made Allen pay when he tried to make something happen, whether it was Kwity Paye's forced fumble or George Odum's interception on 3rd-and-long or Kenny Moore tipping a pass back to himself when Allen forced another covered throw.

9. Moore and Odum said the key was disguising the looks on Allen by showing two-high safety looks pre-snap and moving Odum down into the box the second the ball was snapped. It worked, as Allen finished 21 of 35 for 209 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions. It was a pedestrian day for an MVP-level quarterback.

10. Odum's interception came in part because Rock Ya-Sin had such perfect coverage on the play, and it let Odum play downhill from his free safety spot with an eye on the ball and no care for what the receiver was doing. The Colts are in a strange spot in the secondary after losing both safeties, and now they need their corners to lift the safeties sometimes. Ya-Sin helped do that, and he seems to really be coming on the past couple weeks, just as the Colts needed him.

11. On Ya-Sin, Odum said, "I don't think you should throw it his way in man coverage, honestly. I feel like Rock has developed a lot from the first game to now in becoming an elite player."

Carson Wentz doesn't turn the ball over

12. This was a game I thought could bring some turnover regression for Wentz, against a Bills starting secondary that all grabbed picks last week and against two safeties who combined for seven interceptions this season. Credit Wentz and Frank Reich for leaning into a safer game plan for him, with timing throws to Michael Pittman and play-action roll-out tosses to tight ends and running backs that targeted linebackers and not defensive backs. It was only going to work with the help of a defense and a run game, but it all came together today.

13. A game like this where so much else goes right helps cover up what is one clear deficiency on this Colts team week to week: The wide receivers behind Pittman. Those guys finished with two catches for 26 yards all day, both from T.Y. Hilton. The Bills started to really key in on Pittman, Indianapolis' third-down machine, and Wentz was barely looking anywhere else. Wentz did connect twice with Hilton on a third-down drag route, and that connection will have to grow by the weeks for the Colts to win a game through the air again.

14. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Right when the rain started to pick up, Bills return man Isaiah McKenzie took a kick out of the end zone, tripped and fell to the ground on his own and the ball popped out. In college football, he'd be down. In the NFL, it's a fumble, and T.J. Carrie brought it back to the 2-yard line to set up another Taylor touchdown and a 24-7 lead right before halftime. It's a good thing for the Colts that we're not talking about their special teams right now. Their cleanliness is allowing Taylor, Paye, Moore and others to make the plays to win games.

Michael Badgley makes all 7 kicks in the rain

15. Speaking of special teams, Michael Badgley hit field goals of 35 and 36 yards and all five extra points, and for a dome kicker out in the rain and cold, that means something. The Bills' excellent kicker, Tyler Bass, missed kicks of 49 and 57 yards. It helps that the Colts are making life easier on Badgley. It also helps that he's been so reliable, now 9 of 9 on field goals and 24 of 24 on extra points. Not having to worry about the kicker has allowed the Colts to focus a little more on the other parts of becoming an AFC playoff contender.

16. Diggs scored two touchdowns on the Colts, but the fact that he finished with just four catches for 23 yards and didn't have a gain of longer than nine is significant. The All-Pro receiver entered this game averaging seven receptions for 91 yards per game and 12.5 yards per catch in 25 career contests with Allen. Last week, he hauled in eight passes for 162 yards and a touchdown on the Jets. So credit Ya-Sin, Moore, the Colts' balanced pass rush and the overall plan for handling one of the toughest tasks in the NFL.

17. This game was clearly personal for Reich, who not only spent nine years in Buffalo and learned under Marv Levy but who has had to sit on a painful playoff loss here since January. He came to the post-game press conference with an opening statement about climbing the mountain, moments after Hilton presented him the game ball in the locker room. 

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18. Said Reich, "I’ve been asked about coming back here, I’ve been back here enough times but I don’t know. Something – I felt something on Wednesday out at practice and just knew this game was, they’re all important, but just felt like this game was really important and that we had to be at our best."

19. His team did that and more. Now, the Colts are 6-5 and right in the middle of the wildcard push weeks after they started 1-4. Meaningful football at the end of November is fun. And it will continue with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers coming to Lucas Oil Stadium in seven days.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.