No one was quite certain how the Indianapolis Colts would respond after trading away two of their best, most respected players this week. Everyone seemed to agree that any hopes of salvaging the season depended on Shane Steichen somehow getting his troops to upset the division-leading Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 8. Everyone also knew it was going to be a very difficult challenge.
Turns out, everyone was right.
For the first 26 seconds, things looked pretty darn good. Jonathan Taylor, the subject of so much trade talk in recent days, ripped a 19-yard run on the Colts' first play. Then, it was all downhill.
5 takeaways from the Colts' humiliating defeat in Week 8
We’re going to run through some takeaways very soon. But here’s a bonus one to start your reading. Jonathan Taylor has played his final game as a Colt.
Of course, I don’t know this for a fact. But I do know that he carried the ball eight times on Sunday and was outgained by both Seth McGowan and DJ Giddens. Connect those dots however you like. When I connect them, I see the Colts' best player over the past seven years in a new uniform next week.
There were a few bright spots for the future
Sure, let’s start with something upbeat. Jaylahn Tuimoloau had a sack. So did CJ Allen and Laiatu Latu. Adetomiwa Adebawore was very active. These are the young players the new Colts defense will be built around and they at least made their presence known at times.
It mostly came early on, before the game got out of hand. And I don’t think any defenders are going to brag about a game that saw them surrender almost seven yards per play and 183 yards on the ground. But there were some glimmers of light, and hopefully players like Allen and Tuimoloau can build on some of this positive production as the season plays out.
There is more wrong with Daniel Jones than lingering effects of his injury
I have thought all season that Daniel Jones has looked slow. Mostly, I’ve noticed it in his inability to run away from pressure the way he once could. And I have assumed that as he got into better shape, that speed would come back.
But I am beginning to understand that he has also been slow in terms of processing what is happening on the field. He is seeing things late, or he is not seeing them at all. That has been happening on some of his interceptions.
To be clear, this is not all the QB’s fault. He is not getting help from a depleted receiving corps. But there is something going on with the way Jones is seeing, or not seeing, the field that is very distressing. Perhaps this is something he can play his way through. But he is running out of time.
The Colts have no downfield game
Based on what we are seeing from Indianapolis right now, I think you could make the argument that Alec Pierce’s injury is the most impactful loss any team has suffered this season. That includes the Rams losing Myles Garrett and the Giants losing Jaxson Dart.
The Colts seem utterly helpless without Pierce’s deep threat on the field. They simply cannot force a defense to worry about anything. They can blitz at will. They can crowd the short zones. They can have safeties crash the line on running plays. They know the Colts cannot make them pay for any of it.
This is a personnel problem. It’s a passing game design problem. It’s an execution problem. No one gets off the hook.
There was a play early in the second half that sadly captured the issue. The Colts finally took a modest shot down the seam to Josh Downs. But the Jags' linebacker Ventrell Miller was running stride for stride with him. How is that possible? Miller is not a fast linebacker … but there it was, and the play had no chance.
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes
The Colts committed eight penalties. In the first half! It only cost them 49 yards, which means most of them were five-yard procedural types. They were just far too sloppy for an NFL team. On the plus side, they only committed one (accepted) penalty in the second half. It was only another five-yarder, but it cost them a rather nice Anthony Richardson-manufactured first down.
The mistakes were not confined to penalties. The Colts missed blitz pickups all day. Kapena Gushiken fair caught a punt inside his own five-yard line. Why was Kapena Gushiken even fielding a punt? That is the Colts in 2026.
The absolute worst thing anyone can say
Did the Colts give up? I won’t go that far. I will never accuse NFL players of that without a lot more evidence. But something appeared dead in this team.
The game was over early. Backups played almost the entire fourth quarter. There was a sequence late in the first half with Indy trailing 21-0. They had the ball on their own 15 with just under two minutes to go. They had three timeouts. What followed was embarrassing.
Jonathan Taylor ran a slow-developing sweep to the right and was swarmed behind the line for a two-yard loss. Jones then attempted two short passes. Neither was all that close to succeeding. It was the lowest-energy sequence I’ve seen this team play this season.
Look, some players – especially the younger ones – were clearly trying hard. But this fact cannot be ignored. Three other teams played in the early window with the same 2-5 record as the Colts. The Jets piled up 439 yards in a close loss to the Raiders.
The Bucs shut out division rival Atlanta in what appeared to be a monsoon. And the Cardinals went on the road and fought back to defeat America’s Team in overtime. None of those teams can be accused of giving up.
How confident are you saying the same thing about the Colts after this performance?
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