Colts at Seahawks, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, NBC

After he’d turned a 13-yard out route into a 61-yard touchdown, dodging and darting past (and embarrassing) three hapless defensive backs along the way, and after he’d formed his signature “T” and “Y” in the end zone while some-63,000 roared around him, T.Y. Hilton returned to the sideline for a bear hug with his head coach.

“Good to have you back!” Chuck Pagano bellowed.

That was Sunday in one moment – T.Y. Hilton was back; so, too, was his football team.

More:

► Colts, Brissett bracing for Seattle's ear-shattering noise

► Andrew Luck will not practice this week

► The final hurdles for Andrew Luck

► Love our Colts coverage? Download the free INSports app

It’s not so much that The Ghost had disappeared. He wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t forgotten. The Indianapolis Colts’ Pro Bowl receiver was off to a sufficient, if not spectacular, start to 2017: three catches for 57 yards in the opener, four for 49 a week later. Ho hum. A pair of losses while the star quarterback Hilton’s grown up with in the league rehabs that surgically-repaired throwing shoulder.

But in the days that followed, it became clear: Hilton was fed up, with the losses, with himself, with the utter lack of oomph in the offense. He shouldered the blame. “Can’t happen, won’t happen,” he said of potentially sinking to 0-3, a low these Colts have flirted with in years past but always avoided.

So The Ghost promised big plays.

Then The Ghost went out and made big plays.

“When the head honcho is playing like that, we got no choice but to follow his lead,” receiver Quan Bray said.

After Hilton turned a one-score game into a 14-point cushion, breaking that out-route into a 61-yard touchdown by leaving three Cleveland defensive backs in the dust, he stalked the Colts’ sidelines, uncharacteristically yapping. It was obvious. He was amped. “They ready to lay down!” he said of Browns, whom the Colts would go on to beat 31-28 for their first triumph of the season.

“Sometimes, you need that, especially from a guy like me,” Hilton said this week. “When I make plays, and start talking, guys listen.”

Talking is not something Hilton typically does. It’s not his nature to chide teammates. He’s silent and steady, a go-about-his-business type of Pro Bowler who, for the most part, lets his play on Sundays do the talking.

Yet with Andrew Luck out, and Jacoby Brissett in, Hilton has thrust it upon himself to take a more active leadership role, whether he’s comfortable doing so or not. Teammates have noticed.

"We know what he’s about,” said cornerback Vontae Davis. “Everybody in that locker room respects him. He’s picked it up this year. He’s more vocal. You could tell on Sunday.”

Hilton’s seven-catch, 153-yard eruption in Week 3 was the catalyst the Colts’ desperately needed, and will need moving forward. This team simply doesn’t have the playmakers it used to. Hilton can’t be good. He must be great. (Sunday’s 100-yard game was just the second for Hilton without Luck throwing to him.)

“I just love making plays,” Hilton said. “That’s a big thing for me. Changing the game, that’s something I love doing.”

Through three weeks he’s tied for the league lead in receptions of 25 yards or more. He’s fifth in yards. Fourth in receiving average. And thanks to his outing Sunday, he’s climbed to third on the Colts’ all-time list for most 100-yard receiving games. Just a few games into his sixth season, Hilton’s already got 25.

You know who the top two are. Marvin Harrison had 59. Reggie Wayne 43. Keep it going, and Hilton’s about to find himself in some good company.

Chief to Hilton’s reemergence as a dynamic offensive weapon was the early September arrival of Brissett, the quarterback who’s saved the season while Luck’s lengthy rehabilitation slogs onward. Brissett can wing it in a way Scott Tolzien never could. That opens up the passing game, especially the deep passing game, and that’s where Hilton thrives.

“Just get him the ball and let him do the majority of the work,” Brissett said Wednesday, smiling. The new kid in town is catching on quickly.

“He’s just so savvy,” he added. “He has a really good feel for the game, and it’s comforting to have that (as a quarterback).”

Now comes a far stiffer test: CenturyLink Field, Seattle’s menacing 12th man, and the Seahawk’s bruising defense.

Hilton’s seen Richard Sherman and Co. once in his career. It was a memorable afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, midway through the 2013 season, a back-and-forth brawl with 62 combined points and four lead changes. The Colts rallied twice, eventually scraping out a 34-28 triumph that, in so many ways, reestablished them amidst the league’s upper echelon.

No. 13 torched the vaunted Seattle secondary – Sherman, Brandon Browner, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas included – for five catches, 140 yards and two touchdowns, including a 73-yard bomb Seahawks coach Pete Carroll remembers to this day.

“Great looking play,” he said Wednesday. “They fooled us on something.”

(How good was that Seattle team that year? Three months later it routed the Broncos in the Super Bowl, wrecking a record-setting Denver offense in the process.)

As for that Week 5 game four years ago, Hilton downplayed it.

“Don’t remember it,” he said earlier this week rather sheepishly, knowing full well no one was going to buy that.

When T.Y. Hilton goes off, everyone remembers.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.