That was easily one to forget, as the Indianapolis Colts got blown out, 42-7, on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars—keeping their sorry winless streak alive in Duval County, where the Horseshoe hasn’t won since 2014.
I’d rather not relive one of the worst performances of the past decade by Indianapolis collectively, but we’ll keep this weekly piece alive and not beat an already dead horse that is this 2026 Colts team too much for brevity’s sake:
Horsepower
LB CJ Allen: During his first career start, the
Colts rookie 2nd round pick, who’s been slowed by injuries and arguably an initial first-year leaning curve, delivered—with a team-high 10 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, and QB hit. With the Colts jumpstarting their rebuild earlier last week, this is clearly a ‘play the kids movement,’ which means Allen should continue to see continued starts and playing time to grow, develop, and for the Colts own internal evaluation. After not playing at all at times, this first start was really encouraging nevertheless.
Horseplay
- WR Josh Downs: To his credit, Downs had the only Colts’ receiving touchdown on the afternoon, down midway through the 3rd quarter, 35-0, on a 6-yard catch from Jones, but after requesting a trade earlier in the week from Indianapolis, was largely quiet and had an arguably poor effort recovering a fumble on a trick play. Downs did not make himself available to the media post-game. It’s a little surprising to me that Jones has shown such recent indifferent to the franchise that took a shot on him in the 3rd round of the 2023 NFL Draft and even initially started him as a rookie. Typically, “trade requests” are reserved for proven veterans, who’ve earned the opportunity to continue their playing career elsewhere. Whether it’s for a 3rd or 4th round pick, count me as one who’s ready to move on without Downs this week.
- TE Tyler Warren: Better days are ahead for the Colts’ 2025 first round pick, who had just 18 total receiving yards on 4 receptions and a whopping 10 receiving targets after being blanket by the Jacksonville defense collectively. However, perhaps most egregious on the afternoon, was a Colts quarterback Daniel Jones’ interception that went right through Warren’s handsand led to a 92-yard pick six return by Jaguars safety Rayuan Lane III with 10 seconds left in the first half. It was already over down 21-0 but that was clearly added salt on the Colts wound Sunday.
- Veteran DB Effort: Colts starting safety Cam Bynum shockingly finished with 0 tackles in this one, while their starting outside veteran cornerbacks showed very little extra effort and arguably made their own “business decisions” when attempting to tackle the Jaguars respective ball carriers. Even during an ongoing initial rebuild, you still have to have veterans leading by example out there and playing the right way, and right now, it looks like the remaining Colts defensive veterans still here have mailed it in already.
