Another week, another notch in the loss column for the Indianapolis Colts. Their Week 9 contest against the floundering Dallas Cowboys (who also gave their first-round pick for 2027 to the Jets) was a close one, but ultimately they couldn't get it done on another last-minute drive to take the lead.
Coming into Week 9 with no first-round pick to tank draft position for, and with the coaching staff fighting for their lives, this was about as must-win for a regime as a game can be. Dallas came into the day struggling almost as much as Indy after blowing an overtime game to the lowly Arizona Cardinals in Week 8.
Dallas' Week 8 performance was an exercise in ineptitude, a failure that most would think another franchise couldn't possibly compete with. Anyone who says that clearly hasn't witnessed the endless gaffes of the 2026 Indianapolis Colts.
3 players who couldn't help the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9
No.1: QB Daniel Jones
Yes, here we are again. Daniel Jones, as usual, played an average (i.e., not abysmal) game of football for the majority of the contest. It was uninspiring, but it kept the team within one score of victory until the end. With one minute to go, the team again looked towards Daniel Jones to deliver them to victory.
To start that drive off, Jones opened with a throwaway that resulted in an intentional grounding call. Immediately after, he threw a game-losing pick to Cowboys rookie safety Caleb Downs. Looking towards Jones in a clutch moment is an unerring exercise in futility.
At this point, all Colts fans know that Daniel Jones isn't their franchise QB. Anyone who still thinks he can be is living in a world of delusion. There are only so many weeks in a row where a quarterback has a chance to put the team on his back and lead them to victory, only to fail spectacularly and still have fans believe in him. Shane Steichen, please end the Jones experiment.
No. 2: CB Sauce Gardner
Having just seen the end of the Colts Week 9 game, the knee-jerk reaction of many is to put the entirety of the blame on Daniel Jones' shoulders (although an untimely Josh Downs drop didn't help either). However, Jones had actually led the team to score a field goal on the previous drive, leaving them up 23-20 with less than five minutes to go.
All the team would have to do was stop Dak Prescott and company from driving into scoring range. So, how did the defense respond? Sauce Gardner immediately got burned by Leonard Flournoy, setting the Cowboys up in the red zone.
For as bad as the offense has been in recent weeks, the defense has matched them with every step. There's no need to go further into detail about how abject a failure the Gardner trade has been, but it's been one of the worst in history. It's one thing to fork over immense draft capital; one would at least expect the supposedly premier player to come up for the team in big moments.
No. 3: RB Jonathan Taylor
It's painful to put the man who has easily been the best player in Indianapolis this season in the loser section, but this was a rough game for Jonathan Taylor. He produced only 46 rushing yards on 13 carries and had a crucial fumble late in the game on a potential scoring drive.
There's been a lot of talk about trading the veteran running back, and after this week, that should be a foregone conclusion for Indy (though his value may be slightly lower than normal). The Colts' other running back, Seth McGowan, produced 45 rushing yards in less than half the carries, and punched in the team's sole rushing touchdown as well.
McGowan's performance was a silver lining to this disappointing contest, and it could be the final push that Indy needed to finally deal away their franchise star. It hurts, but it's time for a rebuild, Colts fans. On to the Dolphins.
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