Coming into Week 14, the Indianapolis Colts were playing to take back the divisional lead for the AFC South against the rival Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, in the wake of what looks to be a cataclysmic Daniel Jones injury, even making the playoffs seems uncertain.
The Colts felt like they were playing from behind from the very first play of the game. The team relented a touchdown to Jacksonville's offense, and then on their very first offensive play, Daniel Jones threw an interception of his own. Shortly after, Jones suffered an Achilles injury, and the seemingly close game now felt completely out of reach.
Out of reach it was, as despite backup rookie quarterback Riley Leonard's best efforts, the Colts would be blown out by a score of 19-36. Not every player played their worst game, and there were some bright spots, but with both Daniel Jones and Sauce Gardner out for the foreseeable future, things are looking bleaker than they ever have this season for Indy.
Winners and losers from Colts disappointing loss to the Jaguars
Loser No. 1: Daniel Jones
By far the most disappointing and frankly sad part of the day was the injury that starting quarterback Daniel Jones suffered early on in the contest. When watching the play live, it wasn't certain what happened to Jones, but upon replay, it looked to be an injury of the Achilles nature, which was later confirmed.
Just a week after Sauce Gardner's apparent Achilles injury, this feels like déjà vu for Colts fans. In back-to-back weeks, right at the point when they needed their best players the most, arguably the most important players on offense and defense went down with eerily similar injuries.
It's impossible not to feel for Jones, who has done nothing but be a team player and put his best foot forward for Indianapolis. Still, with young quarterback Anthony Richardson nursing an eye injury, the Colts are forced to roll out rookie sixth-round quarterback Riley Leonard to fight for a playoff spot.
With how much the team has struggled, even having Jones on the field and a very tough schedule coming up, the fight to even make the playoffs looks like an uphill battle.
Winner No. 1: Riley Leonard
The way Riley Leonard played today was not an elite (or even above-average) performance for a starting-caliber quarterback in the NFL. However, he really couldn't be expected to play any better than he did, considering the circumstances of the game.
He saw his first real regular season game-time action without getting any real preparation to be the starter, and did it against one of the best teams in the NFL. The Jaguars have a fearsome defense (especially rushing-wise), and Leonard was forced to play from behind from the very start on a day when Jonathan Taylor and the offensive line couldn't really get anything substantial going running the ball.
Leonard was by no means a world beater against Jacksonville, but finishing the game with a stat line of 18/29 for 145 yards, an interception, and a rushing touchdown is far from a terrible outing.
In fact, Leonard's numbers would look a lot better if two beautiful touchdown throws weren't called back, one for offensive pass interference on Michael Pittman and the other a controversial ruling that said that Alec Pierce did not touch both of his toes down in bounds.
Leonard was not elite, but he did about as well as can be expected from a sixth-round rookie in a very difficult divisional game against a very good divisional opponent, and that lands him in the winners' column.
Winner No. 2: Alec Pierce
It seems like no matter the quarterback, and no matter how the rest of the offense is performing, the one consistent element of Colts football is that Alec Pierce is going to get his yards in, and he's going to make spectacular catches. The electrifying receiver finished the day with 80 yards on five receptions.
That was good enough to lead the team, and it would have been an even better performance had what seemed to be arguably his most impressive catch of the year not been ruled out of bounds. It was about as close a ruling as a touchdown catch could be, and unfortunately, it didn't go Pierce's way.
Alec Pierce is in a contract year, and he's playing some of the best football of his career. He's been the most consistent receiver on the team this season, and arguably the best as well. With how murky the Daniel Jones contract situation is post-injury, Indy may have more money than they anticipated earlier in the year to resign promising young players. It should be a priority to keep Alec Pierce a Colt.
Loser No. 2: Whoever happened to be covering Brian Thomas Jr. and Tim Patrick
Contrary to how the final score made it seem, the Colts' defense made a valiant effort throughout the contest to keep the team in it. It felt like a commonplace occurrence that they would back Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars offense into what seemed to be an unwinnable position, be it a 3rd and 15 or a 3rd and goal.
Unfortunately, without fail, in every one of those situations, it seemed that Lawrence was able to find one of either Patrick or Thomas Jr., who would proceed to make an impressive downfield catch to keep the offense on the field.
The defense played better than the final score would indicate, but time and time again, they let up a back-breaking mistake to give up more points to Jacksonville, and it was one of Patrick or Thomas Jr. to make that play. It's great to back a team into that corner of a 3rd-and-15 situation, but the defense needs to make sure that the opposition can't convert that 3rd-and-15 if they want to be successful going forward.
Winner No. 3: Blake Grupe
Following the disappointing Michael Badgley experience in Indianapolis, the bar for success as an Indianapolis kicker has never been lower. Grupe may not have made any spectacular kicks against the Jaguars, but what he did do was make the kicks he was asked to.
In a game where the Colts were unable to consistently score for the vast majority of it, every kick matters more for the success of the offense. Yes, it wouldn't have impacted the final result if Grupe had missed a kick, but it's promising for the rest of the year that he made both of his field goal attempts and every extra point.
The Colts are going to need to have unlikely players step up in their playoff push in the wake of all of their injuries if they still want to make the postseason. One of those players has to be Blake Grupe, because more than ever, every point matters for Indianapolis.
All in all, while there may be nothing but feelings of doom and gloom today, the Colts' playoff hopes are not over. Be that as it may, with Daniel Jones seemingly out for the year, the ceiling of how far this team can go if they make the playoffs now has a definite cap.
Hopefully, the team can win the rest of their games and still make the postseason, but it's going to take a Nick Foles-level of magic for this team to make any meaningful damage in the playoffs. Nothing is impossible, but this injury hurts more than all of the rest.