TheIndianapolis Colts improved to 2-2 on the season, following a Week 4 win over the Washington Commanders.
With the clock now at zero, here are our instant takeaways from the Colts' performance.
- The good news is that the Colts are back to 2-2, however, despite putting up 30 points, it wasn't the best performance from the offense.
- It was a rough outing for Daniel Jones. He was off-target with several passes and just looked uncomfortable in the pocket. The pressure he faced didn't help things. Ball security was again a problem.
- Off two Jones turnovers, the Colts' defense gave up only three points.
- 14 of the Colts' first 20 points on offense were set up by a fourth-down stop by the Indianapolis defense and then a Jaylon Carlies interception.
- Credit to the Colts' offense for taking advantage of their red zone opportunities. Indianapolis was 3-for-3.
- Jonathan Taylor needed to be involved more heavily early on.
- Not having a real downfield threat is hurting the passing game. The Commanders weren't scared of getting beat deep, which allowed them to play closer to the line of scrimmage and made moving the ball on short to intermediate throws more difficult.
- The Colts' offense struggled on third down. Not helping matters was their early-down issues, which left them in a number of third-and-long situations.
- Those early red zone stops by the Colts' defense were crucial. Indianapolis easily could have found themselves down 14-0.
- A clean game penalty-wise for the Colts. The Commanders, meanwhile, were penalized a lot.
- Excluding the Marcus Mariota run, the Colts' run defense held up well, although once Athan Kaliakmanis was in the game, Indianapolis was able to play more aggressively, and as they took the lead, Washington became pass-heavy.
- The Colts' passing defense mostly made things difficult for Kaliakmanis, who was 15-for-33 passing, although Sauce Gardner gave up two explosive pass plays.
- Blitzing Kaliakmanis often had good results for the Colts against the rookie QB.
- Another excellent outing from Spencer Shrader.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Instant analysis of Colts' Week 4 win over Commanders
