Colts Stephon Gilmore reminds everyone Hes him! with game-saving plays

It’s the moment kids dream of, the moment fans rise to their feet for, the moment when unknown players become household names, or, in Stephon Gilmore’s case, the moment when he reminds everyone who he still is.

That moment happened Thursday night in the final seconds of an otherwise ugly prime-time matchup. The Colts were one play away from a painful overtime win or an even more painful loss, and Gilmore wouldn’t settle for the latter. So, with the game on the line and the Broncos going for it on fourth-and-1 from the Indianapolis 5-yard line, Gilmore did what’s made him a five-time Pro Bowler, two-time first-team All-Pro selection, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl champion.

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He made the play, deflecting a potential game-winning touchdown pass that Russell Wilson tried to squeeze past him to Courtland Sutton. Perhaps the Broncos’ $245 million quarterback should’ve tried someone else.

“He kept trying me,” Gilmore said on the Amazon Prime broadcast after the Colts’ 12-9 victory. “So I made him pay.”

Gilmore would never explicitly say it, but he felt disrespected that a player of his stature was being tested as if he hasn’t shown up on the biggest stages and under the brightest lights. Did Wilson forget his resume?

Maybe it’s because of the season-ending quad injury Gilmore suffered in December 2020 as a member of the Patriots, the long road to recovery that hampered his 2021 season with the Panthers, or that he’s now on his third team in three seasons with the Colts and turned 32 last month.

Whatever the reason, Gilmore dispelled all of them with a performance he refused to call vintage. That game-sealing pass breakup, reminiscent of the one he made in a Week 3 win over Kansas City, wasn’t old Gilmore; that is Gilmore. And the end zone interception he had before that with 2:19 left in the fourth quarter — which led to Chase McLaughlin’s game-tying 31-yard field goal at the end of regulation — wasn’t a sign of the past; it was a sign of things to come.

GILLY LOCK TO END IT. 🔒#JAXvsIND, 10/16 at 1pm ET pic.twitter.com/N35mogRr7c

— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) October 7, 2022

“Yeah, I’m older, but all you got to do is turn the film on,” Gilmore said. “I don’t like when people say, ‘He’s older.’ Just watch the film. I think a lot of guys need to do more of that, just watch the film and judge players off how they play, not age or whatever else about the situation they’re in.”

Gilmore’s timely plays proved to a national audience that he’s still elite, and his defensive teammates could be joining that territory as well. The Colts entered Thursday averaging a league-worst 14.3 points per game, and the offense did the defense no favors by turning in its second TD-less effort of the season.

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It didn’t matter.

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After Matt Ryan was picked off twice by Denver safety Caden Sterns in the second and third quarters, the Colts’ defense kept the Broncos out of the end zone on those two drives and their 12 others.

DeForest Buckner, nursing a left elbow injury, commanded the trenches to the tune of eight tackles, two sacks, two quarterback hits and one pass breakup.

Yannick Ngakoue, who’d been quiet for most of the season, looked like the menacing pass rusher the Colts traded for, totaling 1 1/2 sacks and two quarterback hits.

Defensive tackle Grover Stewart continued his breakout season by blocking Brandon McManus’ 34-yard field goal in the third quarter, saying he “just had to go get it” to keep the score deadlocked at six.

Exactly one minute later, Kenny Moore II, a Pro Bowler last year, made his best play of the season by breaking up a potential touchdown pass from Wilson to Andrew Beck.

Rookie safety Rodney Thomas II, a seventh-round pick out of Yale, stifled Wilson as well, picking him off in the fourth quarter for his first career interception in just his second career start.

After limiting the Broncos to a season-low nine points and 2-for-15 on third downs, practically every Colts defensive player had a reason to smile in the visitors’ locker room Thursday. They did their best to bring a smile out of their reserved leader, too, cheering Gilmore on as he headed to the showers.

“For Gilly to come up with that big pick to give us a chance to drive down the field and kick a field goal to tie it up and go to OT, that was big time,” Buckner said. “That’s why they call him ‘Bump N Run.’”

Said Moore: “To come out with that win was pretty cool, just to look back and see the ball bounce on the ground (at the end of the game). … That’s the type of thing that we needed to get back on track this season.”

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Thomas praised Gilmore for his poise in every situation, admitting that the veteran cornerback sometimes leaves him speechless. “I’m just like, ‘Bro, I don’t know how you do it. You make everything look so smooth,’” Thomas said.

Stewart added that all the defensive linemen “trust Gill in the back,” while Ngakoue called him a “big brother.”

“That’s somebody that I pick his brain, even though he plays a different position,” Ngakoue said. “He’s been doing it at a high level for a very long time, so that’s somebody that I go to for everything.”

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Gilmore finished with five tackles, his first interception of the season and two pass deflections, none bigger than the one that pushed the Colts to 2-2-1. Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers Sr. said Gilmore’s lockdown performance is why he’s earned the nickname “Gilly Lock.” Colts coach Frank Reich said it was a reminder that Gilmore remains a cut above everyone else in his 11th NFL season.

“That’s the definition of a big-time player making the plays in the moment, and he made the two huge plays, massive plays,” Reich said. “That guy’s a great player, just lifted the defense. They were already playing great and those big plays obviously helped win that game.”

As Gilmore put on his clothes and gathered his belongings in the locker room, his teammates kept saying all of the things that he’s too humble to say himself, the most notable being a two-word phrase, “HE’S HIM!” Colts players screamed that phrase over and over to recognize Gilmore’s clutch and dominant outing.

Asked if he is indeed him — one of only six cornerbacks to ever win NFL Defensive Player of the Year and still one the best players in the league — Gilmore was cut off by fellow cornerback Brandon Facyson before he could answer.

“He’s him,” Facyson confirmed, as Gilmore finally cracked a smile. “He’s him!”

(Top photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)

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