It only took one bad game from Daniel Jones to bring Colts back to reality

Through the first eight games of the 2025 season, things were mostly beautiful for the Indianapolis Colts. Even the team's one loss in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Rams was forgivable. If not for two Adonai Mitchell errors, Indy might still be undefeated.

But Week 9 was brutal. Whether the game was more realistic of how Indianapolis will play during a tougher run of games in the second half of the season or just one-game badness remains unknown. The future will decide that, of course.

Colts fans might have learned a lot against the Steelers, though. One obvious one is that if quarterback Daniel Jones is not near-perfect, the team will not be in a good situation. The defense isn't good enough to save the team. Not all of Jones's mistakes in Week 9 were his own fault, but he made two terrible errors.

Defense cannot save dismal Indianapolis Colts offensive performance in Week 9

One occurred in the first half, while the Steelers were building the momentum that would carry them the rest of the way, Jones dropped back on second-and-five from his own 30-yard line and decided to force a pass 10 yards in front of him that was easily intercepted by linebacker Payton Wilson.

It was the kind of decision that led the New York Giants to give up on Jones last season and release him. To be fair to the quarterback, his issues in New York appear to have been much more the fault of the Giants than Jones's, but the blame for what happened in Week 9 squarely falls on the quarterback.

The second happened trailing 27-17 and after the Colts had recovered a Steelers fumble. Jones took a chance down the field when the team simply needed to keep picking up first downs. He made the poor decision of throwing to a receiver that cornerback Joey Porter, Jr. was draped all over. Porter got the easy pick.

The Colts had four turnovers on the entire season entering Week 9, but had six of them against the Steelers. Five of them were by Jones. Two were strip-sack fumbles, and three were interceptions. Two of the picks (the one to Wilson) were absolutely Jones's fault. The others were arguably not.

The lack of quality blocking that Daniel Jones had in front of him was shocking. He was constantly under pressure. The strip-sacks were because his offensive linemen were allowing the Steelers to get sharp angles at the quarterback. Jones still has to have better ball control under pressure, but he shouldn't have been under so much pressure.

Jones did have a fourth quarter touchdown pass to cut the Steelers' lead to 27-17, but Colts fans have learned everything they need to know by that point. If Indianapolis has to throw a lot to win a game, Indy likely won't be successful. The offense needs to be Jonathan Taylor-first. Daniel Jones-first is not a great thing, and the defense is never going to save the team.