Indianapolis Colts fans can take a breath: their home team logged its first win of the season against AFC South rival the Houston Texans in a close battle at home. One way or the other, one team was getting win number one, and the loser would drop to 0-3. The Colts officially have a leg up on the Texans.
While the win is good, it wasn't exactly perfect, and hardly any wins in the NFL come out 100-for-100. In the Colts' case, it wasn't close to a hundred, and Daniel Jones was unfortunately a big part of that. Unfortunately, he was part of the "ugly" in the win, and his shaky performance has been a theme of the early season.
What the Colts had to improve going into their Week 3 matchup against a defense that was the best in the league a season ago was capitalizing on missed opportunities on offense. Colts tight end Tyler Warren called it out last week as a key factor, but the Colts failed to heed his advice, and it could have cost them a win.
Daniel Jones made almost every mistake in the book in the Indianapolis Colts' Week 3 victory
After losing a close game to the Kansas City Chiefs last week, Warren spoke with the media later in the week about how missed opportunities on offense were costing the Colts. Jones was a large part of those missed opportunities, and he was again on Sunday against the Texans.
Jones accounted for three total turnovers; it could have been four, had it not been for a Colts-recovered fumble courtesy of their quarterback. Jones coughed up the football twice to the Texans and also threw a costly interception. Furthermore, Jones was sacked four times.
Those turnovers were huge, but the biggest missed opportunities came on four of the five scoring drives Jones led the Colts offense on, which ended in field goals rather than touchdowns. For this reason alone, the Colts were perhaps lucky to squeeze out the 19-17 win because C.J. Stroud did less, like throwing for just 167 yards and one touchdown.
If the Texans' offense had played better, even just a little, the Colts could have lost this game. Celebrate the win, yes, but the Colts can't be happy with how they got it, because losing the turnover battle 3-0 is the perfect recipe for dropping games and, more often than not, is impossible to overcome.
Week 3 showed just how troubling Jones's play has been so far this season. His turnovers (five) outnumber his passing touchdowns (three); plus, he reverted to not using his greatest strength, which is escaping the pocket and running with the ball. Against the Chiefs, he ran for 10 yards on three rushes. Against the Texans; five yards on three carries.
The little good news today is that Indianapolis is on the board with a win, while both the Texans and the Tennessee Titans dropped to 0-3. The bad news is we're not sure what's wrong with Jones, and that's a massive problem. You can bet on another game like his against Houston, but against a better team is a definite loss. The Colts got lucky this time around.
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