INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones quickly tried to dispel any notion the lower leg bone injury that showed up on last Thursday's injury report had anything to do with his performance in the loss to Kansas City.
He also pronounced himself ready to play in Sunday's key AFC South game against Houston.
“I'm good, I'm all good,” he said Wednesday before going through the team's short walkthrough. “I'll be ready to go on Sunday.
Obviously, I was out there last week so I'm good to go.”
Jones was listed as a limited participant though coach Shane Steichen continued to downplay the injury. Indy (8-3) will need Jones to be effective this week as they try to pad their two-game division lead over the Texans (6-5).
Jones said he couldn't pinpoint exactly when the injury occurred or when he first noticed something didn't seem right.
Still, he's been working with the team trainers since it happened.
The questions came quickly after Jones struggled against the Chiefs' pass rush especially in the fourth quarter and overtime as Indy's 20-9 lead evaporated. Kansas City forced overtime with a late field goal in regulation before eventually winning 23-20.
While Jones was not sacked and did not have a turnover, he finished 19 of 31 with 181 yards and two touchdowns — and a season-low completion rate of 61.3% in one of his lowest-rated games this season.
In Indy's previous three games, he accounted for seven turnovers and was sacked 15 times.
The recent struggles after an incredibly fast start have some outsiders wondering if he's healthy or whether Jones is simply regressing to his previous norms following an excellent start that included winning seven of his first eight starts with the Colts.
Since then, he's 2-2 and has been scrambling more frequently to buy time, something he may be forced to do against Houston's stout defense.
Yet Steichen doesn't sound concerned.
“I think anytime you go through a season, you’re going to have highs and lows, and then you battle back from those,” Steichen said. “But even like last week, I think he was completing balls. I think he had a 100.0 passer rating. I think he was 14 of 16 at one point. He’s playing good ball, you know what I mean? It’s just winning those — winning those games at the end.”
And even as Jones makes no excuses for what's happened recently, he knows that he and the Colts offense need a strong rebound as they pursue their first division title since 2014.
“I think when you’re out there, you can’t afford to be thinking about anything like that," he said, referring to the injury. "I think those third downs — didn’t make the play (and) weren’t putting ourselves in great position on early downs. I don’t think there was necessarily one problem that carried through on each of those tries. I think it was just — we didn’t execute at a high level when we needed to.”
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