Michael Pittman Jr. stood on the sideline, his helmet off as he laughed and joked with his teammates during the fourth quarter of the Colts' Week 8 game against the Tennessee Titans.
The wide receiver had plenty of reasons to be that relaxed and happy; his team was up by 30 points, and he had eight receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown to his name. That touchdown – his sixth of the season – tied his career-high, and his 95 receiving yards were the most he'd recorded in a game so far in 2025.
But Shane Steichen had one more thing to ask him.
"You want that 100 yards?" the head coach asked.
Pittman's response was simple: "I'm good, don't worry about it."
He was content to stay on the sidelines, affording some of the younger and less experienced players on the roster get their time on the field as the clock wound down and the Colts took down the Titans for their seventh win of the season.
Pittman was just five yards away – it would have been easy to ask for one more play, one more target to get him to triple digits. But he didn't.
"Because we didn't need it, right?" he explained. "And if I want to get 100 yards, I gotta do it in our actual game time. And then at the end of the game, when we're trying to run out that clock, it's just not smart."
Up 38-7 for the majority of the fourth quarter (the Titans scored one last-minute touchdown to move the final score to 38-14) the Colts were, in fact, just looking to run out the clock. Backup quarterback Riley Leonard took over for Daniel Jones and Pittman's fellow starting receivers were next to him on the sidelines.
Pittman, if he had recorded 100 receiving yards, would have been the first Colts player to do so this season. No one, not even Alec Pierce or Tyler Warren, has hit triple-digits yet. The Colts simply haven't needed anyone to.
"Because we have so many weapons that it's spread out so well, we don't need somebody to do that," Pittman said. "If it does happen, then it happened naturally — I mean, last game, Alec had 98 yards and he was good with just letting it go because we were winning and in the flow of the game, we didn't need it. It didn't add anything to us winning the game."
"The fact that we haven't had 100 to this point, it's just a testament to the weapons we have on this offense," wide receiver Ashton Dulin said. "So many guys can make any play and then have a day and be the guy on the offense, and it just depends on the game. Everyone's ready for their opportunity. The fact that Pitt was five yards away and still getting try to 100 just speaks volumes to him as a player, everybody on this team and our character."
We all know the Colts have a talented and versatile offense – and they also have an incredibly efficient one. On Sunday, Pittman averaged 11.9 yards per reception. Pierce, with two receptions for 69 yards, averaged 34.5. Warren, with four receptions for 53 yards, averaged 13.3 yards. Josh Downs, with three receptions for 39 yards, averaged 13 yards.
Pittman had a thrilling catch and a stunning touchdown. Pierce had a contested, one-on-one 50-yard catch that almost no one else could have brought down. Downs had a touchdown.
Every single reception was important. That's why, at the end of the game, the stats don't paint the whole picture.
"We got really good receivers on this team," wide receiver Josh Downs said. "That 100-yard stat is not really a knock on us. We got a lot of dudes in the room, and we got the best running back in the league and probably one of the greatest rookie tight ends that's every played. So I think (Pittman) is selfless for not going out there and getting those five yards. We've got bigger fish to fry, so to say, but we've got a lot of players that are really good."
That mentality seems to be one of the keys to the success of this offense: they just want to win, no matter what. Individual accolades are put on the back burner, and they're just as happy to see their teammates – their family – find success.
Everyone has their own strengths, and they have the freedom to play to those strengths because they know their teammates will back them up.
"They want to take away JT (Jonathan Taylor), we got four other dudes that can make plays," Downs said. "They want to take away Pitt and Tyler, we got Alec Pierce, me, JT. Take AP or me away, we got two or three other dudes. And it's good knowing that everybody's selfless, too. We don't have any guys going in there mad or on the sidelines pouting. We got a lot of great players.
"It just makes it hard to stop. We don't have a one-trick pony, we got like a five-trick pony, six-trick pony."
Well, they are called the Colts.
