3. The Colts' offensive line took care of the Raiders both in the pass and run games.
The Raiders arrived in Indianapolis with at least one sack in 39 consecutive games, which was the NFL's longest active sack streak. The emphasis there is on "was," as the Raiders did not register a sack in a game for the first time since Week 18 of the 2022 season.
Part of this was the Colts having a plan for Crosby, not just with Jones getting the ball out quick but with extra attention to him in pass protection. On a third-and-eight early in the third quarter, Crosby lined up as a wide nine rusher to tight end Tyler Warren's outside shoulder; Warren chipped Crosby and released, then running back Jonathan Taylor chipped and released. Had the play extended further, right tackle Braden Smith was waiting to get hands on Crosby, too; Jones was able to rip a 20-yard completion to Dulin with Crosby nowhere near him.
When Crosby did get matched up one-on-one against Smith or left tackle Bernhard Raimann, those guys handled him well; Crosby's pash rush win rate, per Pro Football Focus, was 5.6 percent, his lowest in a single game since Week 3 of the 2024 season. It was just the fourth time Crosby had a pass rush win rate under 6 percent in a game since the start of the 2021 season; one of those other three games was the Colts' Week 17 win over the Raiders in 2023.
"It was all hands on deck to stop him," Steichen said. "I thought Braden did a phenomenal job the entire game. I thought the tight ends did a great job when we were max protecting them, the tailbacks chipping. Obviously, he's a game wrecker, and so that was the plan going in – to try to stop him. I thought our guys did a great job."
In the run game, the Colts were able to get left guard Quenton Nelson on the move quite a bit. He pulled to the right, running from the far hash to the near numbers, on Taylor's first touchdown of the game; on a first down run late in the second quarter, Nelson pulled from the far hash to the far numbers and drove Raiders linebacker Elandon Roberts down the field and out of the play; midway through the third quarter, Nelson again pulled from the near hash to far numbers, where he got hands on cornerback Darien Porter to open a path for Taylor to pick up eight yards.
Nelson also cleared out defensive tackle Jonah Laulu on a 12-yard Taylor run, strained to keep a defender away from Taylor on a one-yard touchdown run and controlled Laulu (with center Tanor Bortolini pulling behind him and climbing to the second level to block linebacker Devin White) to open a lane for Taylor to punch in a six-yard touchdown.
"He's special, now," Steichen said. "It's almost like when we're game planning, he's like a skill player. It's like, 'Hey, how can we be creative to get him out in space and run behind him and set him up so we can set JT up behind him?' There is that element to it as well because he is that good. So, we always try to find ways in the run game to utilize his strengths whether that is him out on the edge pulling or inside, because he's got all the ability in the world to do everything."