The Indianapolis Colts made a change to their starting lineup on Sunday, benching rookie Dalton Tucker and starting veteran Mark Glowinski, who was elevated from the practice squad the day prior.
Glowinski is an experienced player, coming into Sunday’s game with 124 appearances in his NFL career, nearly half of which came with the Colts from 2017-2021.
He had just joined the Colts’ practice squad less than two weeks earlier after not being on an NFL roster and provided some much-needed stability, specifically against the run, where Indianapolis was in need of that.
Glowinski was so-so in pass protection, allowing three pressures, but he was quite effective in the ground game, carving out running lanes for Jonathan Taylor.
According to PFF’s metrics, when running behind Glowinski, Taylor averaged 4.5 yards per rush on seven attempts in Sunday’s game.
Coming into this game, the Colts had struggled in the run game for the last month-plus. Since Week 9 against Minnesota, if we take away Jonathan Taylor’s 58-yard run against Buffalo, he was averaging only 2.9 yards per carry during that four-game stretch.
The trickle-down effect of a struggling run game is that the offense then falls behind the sticks, can become one-dimensional and pass-heavy, putting an added burden on the passing game.
However, against New England, that wasn’t the case. While the Colts’ passing game was disjointed and out of rhythm for much of the day, the run game gave them something to lean on, with Glowinski providing an upgrade at right guard.
