Taylor True to His Word

Fred Taylor ran the ball Sunday as well as he ran his mouth during the week.

The result for Jacksonville was a 28-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, highlighted by Taylor’s game-winning, 32-yard touchdown run with 1:08 left.

Taylor finished with a season-high 152 yards and delivered on his promise to “punish” Colt safety Mike Doss, whose rough play in the season’s first meeting prompted Taylor to send out this midweek warning: “I’m going to punish him. If he hits me, fine, but if I catch him, believe me, I’m going to get the better shot.”

On his game-winning touchdown run, Taylor broke three tackles, including an attempt by Doss.

“I guess you’d have to say he got the final word today,” Doss said.

Taylor’s trash talk was the perfect motivation for the Jaguars (2-7) -- a struggling team in desperate need of a spark.

“He spoke out this week, which doesn’t happen too often,” Coach Jack Del Rio said.

“What we talked about as a team is, when one of our guys puts himself out there, we have to back him up,” he said.

They did, and the Jaguars earned the first victory in franchise history over the Colts (7-2), who fell into a first-place tie with Tennessee in the AFC South.

After Taylor’s score, Peyton Manning needed to move 66 yards with one timeout to engineer his 19th career game-winning drive. But he threw an interception to Deke Cooper with 11 seconds left.

The Colts played the final three quarters without receiver Marvin Harrison, who strained his hamstring.

Manning threw for 347 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.