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Michael Pittman Jr. puts Colts on his (bad) back: 'He's the toughest guy I’ve ever been around'

14 October 2024Last Update :
Michael Pittman Jr. puts Colts on his (bad) back: 'He's the toughest guy I’ve ever been around'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — There was no time for second-guessing. If it was going to hurt — and it most certainly would — he was at least going to make it count.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. was already gutting through a back injury Sunday that some believed would keep him out for a few weeks. His refusal to surrender to the pain led him to this moment: Third-and-9 from the Tennessee Titans’ 10-yard line with the game hanging in the balance.

Colter quarterback Joe Flacco took the snap and was immediately under fire. The Titans sent the house, and Flacco hardly had any time to scan the field before he lofted the football into the end zone. Pittman hadn’t done much up to that point, boasting just one catch for 9 yards, yet with Tennessee’s top cornerback L’Jarius Sneed draped all over him, Pittman still leaped into the air and plucked the ball out of the sky.

Touchdown.

The scored ended up being the game winner in the Colts’ 20-17 victory over the Titans.

“Joe just made a great throw. He just fell back and threw it up,” Pittman said, downplaying his contested catch. “I had to go up there and get it for him.”

Pittman’s touchdown was the play of the game in a back-and-forth contest that marked the Colts’ (3-3) first AFC South victory of the season. They had entered the day 0-2.

It was also a testament to the man in the No. 11 Colts jersey and the respect he’s garnered every time he wears it.

“(He’s) the toughest guy I’ve ever been around,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said.

Flacco, a 17-year NFL veteran, echoed the same sentiment.

“I think part of him was trying to prove a point,” Flacco said. “I think there was a report that came out earlier (saying Pittman would be sidelined). … When you have guys like that, you can go a long way, and that’s the kind of guys you need to play winning football.

“He’s unbelievable.”

Pittman said he made the decision Thursday to play against the Titans following several conversations with those he trusts. No voice carried more weight than that of his father, former Super Bowl-winning running back Michael Pittman Sr., whom Pittman Jr. said he gets his toughness from.

“He said that if I felt like I could be effective, then I should play,” Pittman Jr. said. “We sat there, and we talked for an hour.”

As Pittman Jr. weighed the decision to play, he said his father’s advice truly resonated because, “He played through a lot of things.” The 12-year NFL pro didn’t let much stop him from going to work on Sundays, not even a bloody fishing accident.

“My dad damn near cut his finger off, wrapped a damn paper towel around it and then kept fishing just like it was nothing.” Pittman said, laughing as he reflected on his childhood. “I was like, ‘Alright, you’re gonna bleed out, but OK.’ And then he went to the facility the next day and got like 10 stitches on his pointer finger.”

Pittman Jr. is cut from the same cloth.

The 27-year-old has missed just five out a possible 73 regular-season games through the first five years of his career. Sunday wasn’t one of them as he, “put the team on his back,” according to Colts safety Julian Blackmon. Despite making just three catches for 35 yards, Pittman ran a team-high 32 routes against the Titans, per TruMedia.

“He’s a solider,” Blackmon continued. “He’s a leader, he’s a captain and — he gave us life.”

Blackmon said Pittman’s touchdown grab spoke to Pittman’s physical sacrifice as well as his next-level IQ. As much as Pittman’s back may have been hurting him, he didn’t let it cloud his mind, evidenced by how he wittily executed his clutch catch over Sneed. Blackmon joked that he deserved partial credit for Pittman’s touchdown since he used the same “levitation” move on Pittman to win a 50-50 ball over him months ago. Pittman never forgot it and deployed it at the perfect time.

“I really didn’t jump that high, I just jumped on (Sneed),” Pittman said. “ … You gotta cheat a little bit because Julian Blackmon did that to me in training camp, where he jumped first and kind of put that elbow on me and it made me look real bad.”

The one thought going through Pittman’s head when the same kind of ball floated toward him and Sneed in the end zone?

“Not again,” he quipped.

Pittman capped his timely performance with a 16-yard catch just before the final two-minute warning that helped the Colts pick up a first down and bleed more of the clock before an eventual (perfect) Rigoberto Sanchez punt put the game out of reach.

Josh Downs, who had a noteworthy game in his own right with a team-best seven catches for 66 yards and one touchdown, said after Pittman’s two clutch catches, he had to give his teammate a new nickname: “The Closer.”

Downs worked through his own toe injury to be available Sunday, but the second-year receiver added that Pittman gave him extra motivation. The Colts’ top receiver inked a three-year, $70 million extension in March, yet he was still willing to put his body on the line as if he was the last guy on the depth chart, trying to establish a name for himself.

“We all love this game, so once you kind of lose that love and you start kind of (thinking), ‘Ah, well, I’m already paid. I don’t think I should play through this, play through that,’ I feel like that just shows you’re kind of losing it,” Downs said. “For him to go out there and battle through what he’s going through is huge.”

Pittman made it clear after Sunday’s that his status remains “week-to-week” and will for the foreseeable future, and in an extremely candid moment, he also revealed that a trip to injured reserve is “still on the table,” depending on how his back holds up throughout the season.

But for now, he said his back feels good and a win was the best medicine.

“I’m still that guy,” Pittman said. “Injured or not, I’m out there and I’m still me.”

(Photo: Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

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