The mood in the Colts locker room was off. It was weird and it was odd, with guys whispering to their neighbors instead of hyping each other up.
They should have been energized, excited, ready to go out and play. Instead, they were thrown off and uncertain.
No one could blame them, after the sudden pregame injuries to backup quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr., who sustained an orbital eye fracture, and cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr., who sustained a concussion, but there was also a football game to be played. The Arizona Cardinals were waiting, and the Colts had the opportunity to improve to 5-1, which would be the team's best record through six games since 2009.
So, Shane Steichen, Quenton Nelson and Zaire Franklin rallied the troops.
And rally they did, not just to get into the right mindset to play a football game, but to win that football game.
The 31-27 victory wasn't the prettiest – everyone in the locker room will own up to that – but it got the job done.
"It wasn't our best game, at all, but we found a way to win," safety Cam Bynum said. "Especially with a lot of guys out, next man up is always going to be the most real phrase in the NFL, because everybody has to be prepared to play."
Ward's concussion meant the Colts had to play Sunday's game without their two most talented and experienced cornerbacks, as Kenny Moore II was inactive for the third week in a row with an Achilles injury. Adding on to that, Justin Walley and Jaylon Jones are on injured reserve and Mike Hilton was placed on the practice squad injured reserve last week – so that's five cornerbacks in total.
But the guys remaining – Chris Lammons, Mekhi Blackmon, undrafted free agent Johnathan Edwards and Cameron Mitchell (elevated from the practice squad on Saturday) – were prepared to play, and they came through in two key moments.
In the second quarter, Blackmon recorded his second interception in as many games to take away what very likely could have been a Cardinals scoring drive and instead setting up the Colts' second touchdown drive of the day.
And in the fourth quarter, as the Cardinals threatened in the red zone with barely one minute left on the clock, the defense rallied as whole, deploying strong coverage and an intimidating pass rush alike to force a series of incomplete passes by quarterback Jacoby Brissett and get one final stop to close out the game. Lammons was the one to cover tight end Trey McBride in the end zone on the final play, and while defensive end Laiatu Latu was credited with the quarterback hit on the play, it was also the coverage by Lammons forced the Cardinals to turn the ball over.
"I thought those guys did make a play when they had to," Steichen said. "And obviously you got some young guys out there that are learning on the job, and they competed their tails off. There wasn't any lack of compete in any of those guys."
With younger and less experienced players on the field on Sunday, Bynum took it upon himself – as one of the veterans in the secondary – to make sure his teammates were up to speed.
"You just got to know that whoever fills in, (have) confidence they'll be ready to play and play well," Bynum said. "But my job, the biggest thing is I have to communicate well to make sure that there's no confusion with the guy that hasn't gotten as much playing time as a starter, knowing that he feels prepared and is confident when he's out there. And I feel like we did a good job with that, with just simple communication knowing what to do and how to do it, and everything else takes care of itself."
Sunday's game was a new experience for the Colts this season, in needing to mount a late comeback and fight through adversity to secure the win. And while they certainly believe they could have played much better, they also showed they have a locker room full of players who are ready and able to step up when needed.
"They were relentless," Steichen said. "And like I said, when we needed it there at the end, we came up big."
