INDIANAPOLIS — Marlon Mack had a career-best 174 rushing yards in Sunday's 2019 season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Marlon Mack leads the NFL in rushing by 46 yards.
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The third-year running back was stellar throughout Sunday's loss to the Chargers, but especially in the second half, when he ran the ball 17 times for 153 yards and a touchdown, adding a 63-yard score midway through the third quarter and then punching in the game-tying two-point conversion to force overtime.
Despite trailing throughout the entire game to that point — the Colts' deficit was 15 points with less than eight minutes to go in the third quarter — head coach Frank Reich made sure to stick with the run game over the final two quarters, which clearly paid off. Mack credited his offensive line with staying patient with the plan and giving him plenty of space, as he reached the second level on carry after carry over the final two quarters.
"The guys created such great holes for me, so all I had to do was just take care of the rest and get my job done," Mack told Colts.com's Larra Overton after the game.
By game's end, Mack's 174 rushing yards were not only a career-best, but they were the 11th-most rushing yards in a single game in Colts franchise history, and the ninth-most since 1960. It was the best rushing performance for the Colts since Nov. 21, 2004, when Edgerrin James racked up 204 yards against the Chicago Bears.
Mack's 124 rushing yards in the third quarter, meanwhile, was the highest total by a Colts running back in the third quarter of a game dating back to at least that 2004 game against the Bears.
After carrying the ball just six times for 10 yards in one preseason game, Mack and the Colts' offense had a little something to prove in the run game once the regular season got underway.
The did just that against the Chargers, and now the plan is to do it again on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, but this time be the catalyst for Indy's first win of the season.
"Just coming in here we knew what we had to do to get ourselves right, look ourselves in the mirror and just go out there and do our job," Mack said.
