The Colts didn’t just lose in Jacksonville on Sunday. They got flattened, 42-7, and the latest chapter in this road nightmare looked every bit as ugly as the final score suggests.
Indianapolis is now 2-6 after taking an authoritative beating at EverBank Stadium, and the streak against the Jaguars away from home keeps stretching into absurd territory. It has been 12 years - and 12 tries - since the Colts last beat Jacksonville on the road. Eight of those losses have come by multiple scores, including this one.
That backdrop only made the day feel worse for a Colts team that has already started tearing down pieces of its foundation. Two weeks after firing general manager Chris Ballard, Indianapolis followed with trades of Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner this week.
After Sunday, the question isn’t just what went wrong. It’s what comes next.
Jacksonville set the tone immediately. The Colts opened the game with a four-play punt, and after Rigoberto Sanchez pinned the Jaguars at their own 2-yard line, Trevor Lawrence marched them 98 yards in 12 plays. The big play came on a 46-yard catch-and-run to Brenton Strange, and Lawrence finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown to Brian Thomas Jr. for a 7-0 lead with 5:30 left in the first quarter.
The second quarter turned into a slow bleed for Indianapolis, then a full collapse. After four straight punts between the teams, the Colts tried a trick play that blew up in their faces.
Jonathan Taylor took the handoff and tried to pitch to Josh Downs while stumbling, but the ball got away and Jacksonville recovered. Four plays later, Lawrence hit rookie tight end Nate Boerkircher from 31 yards out to make it 14-0 with 7:14 left in the half.
The Colts went right back to punting, and Jacksonville kept cashing in. Bhayshul Tuten scored from 39 yards out on 1st-and-10 from the Colts’ 39-yard line, pushing the margin to 21-0 with 1:51 remaining.
Indianapolis did force a big defensive play when Caden Curry and Laiatu Latu combined for a sack-fumble that Curry recovered, but the offense wasted the chance. Daniel Jones’ pass slipped through Tyler Warren’s hands and into the arms of Jaguars safety Rayuan Lane III, who returned it 92 yards for a touchdown and a 28-0 halftime lead.
The Jaguars added to the damage right away after the break. Indianapolis turned the ball over on downs on its first possession of the third quarter, and Jacksonville responded with a 3rd-and-1 touchdown run by Chris Rodriguez Jr. from the Indianapolis 28-yard line to make it 35-0 with 9:08 left in the quarter.
At least the Colts finally found the end zone once. A 10-play, 65-yard drive ended with Jones finding Downs for a 6-yard touchdown, and Spencer Shrader’s extra point cut it to 35-7 with 3:49 left in the third.
But even that didn’t stick. Tuten answered with his second touchdown of the day, taking a Lawrence screen pass 25 yards to make it 42-7 by the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter brought no relief. Jones was intercepted again while targeting Warren, this time by Jaguars linebacker Branson Combs, who picked it off at the Jacksonville 19 and returned it to the 28.
Lawrence had already been replaced by Quinn Ewers by then, and the Jaguars went three-and-out. Indianapolis then pulled Jones for Anthony Richardson Sr., but that drive also ended on downs.
The final nine minutes were nothing but punts.
It was a brutal afternoon from start to finish, and the Colts’ road misery in Jacksonville now sits at a level that’s hard to ignore.
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