Colts might finally be getting the real version of Daniel Jones after all

The Indianapolis Colts lost to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4 27-20. Indy led for a lot of the game, played well enough to just lose, but some things fans thought were fact might not be. We learned a lot about the Colts in their first loss of the season.

One is that wide receiver Adonai Mitchell can nearly single-handedly cause the team to lose. He bungled a would-be 75-yard touchdown reception when he tried to get too cute while running into the end zone. He also had a needless holding penalty on a would-be 53-yard Jonathan Taylor touchdown run.

But we might have learned too much truth about quarterback Daniel Jones. Indy's QB1 is certainly better than backup Anthony Richardson would be for the team. Indianapolis doesn't go 3-0 if AR5 is behind center. They certainly don't beat the Rams with Richardson as the starting QB.

Daniel Jones fails the Indianapolis Colts in the biggest moments of Week 4

But Jones might be just good enough to be a quality starter, but not good enough to make much of a difference for a team that has playoff aspirations. He wasn't terrible versus Los Angeles. To be fair, except for Mitchell's ridiculous error, he has another touchdown pass, and maybe Indy wins.

But Jones also made two costly errors himself. One was in the first half when he underthrew a somewhat open (you guessed it) Adonai Mitchell, and the Rams intercepted the ball. The decision to throw the ball deep wasn't an awful one, but the execution was.

There is a reason Danny Dimes has a reputation for not taking chances. He isn't overly good when he does. Mitchell had a chance at an explosive play had Jones put the ball where it needed to be, but he didn't.

The second interception was far worse. Indianapolis had the ball with 55 seconds left, trailing by a touchdown, but with timeouts left. Daniel Jones ended any hope, however, when he dropped back to pass and tried to hit receiver Michael Pittman on the sidelines about 20 yards down the field.

The problem was that Pittman was double-covered and never open. Jones took a risk he shouldn't have. This is something that he has done in his NFL career, and one reason he was let go by the New York Giants after nearly six seasons.

Maybe the season will play out differently, but when the Indianapolis Colts needed Daniel Jones the most, he could not come through. He is a better QB than he was with New York, but probably just good enough to keep the Colts from reaching the best version of themselves.

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