Steelers gave everyone the blueprint that up until that point nobody had a clue the Colts offense was setting records and barely punting. Steelers showed the NFL stack the line blitz like crazy and make Jones make quick decisions. If Taylor isn’t running well and Jones scripted throw isn’t there he panics and once he starts turning it over, he’ll continue to turn it over.

Falcons used the Steelers blue print and if not for an Epic performance from Jonathan Taylor that would’ve been a loss also

o


So, after the Steelers game, it might have been clear that the Colts' season would be going in the shitter ??? Or as you say, in hindsight, that Steelers game was the blueprint for dismantling the Colts team that started the season at 6-1 before that game, and at 8-2 before Daniel Jones broke his fibula. That's about as dubious a claim that I can imagine in regard to what was the main protagonist in the collapse of the 20-25 Colts season.

The Colts committed 6 turnovers in the Steelers game. After that Steelers game, the Colts had 2 games in which they had 0 turnovers, and they had only 1 or 2 turnovers in all of their other remaining games except for the one against the Jaguars in which they had 3. Anybody who even moderately followed the Colts this season knows that that Daniel Jones breaking his left fibula in the Chiefs game was the biggest factor in their collapse, and the combination of further season-losses to key players (such as DeForest Buckner and Sauce Gardner) created the ideal storm for their collapse. There was no blueprint set by the Steelers, there was the Colts' otherwise mobile quarterback having to run and throw on a broken fibula, there was the team being relegated to a 44 year-old Philip Rivers as their QB after Jones tore his Achilles tendon, and there was the fact that the team was further decimated by season-ending injuries to Buckner and Gardner. If there was a blueprint set by the Steelers, the Colts would have been beaten soundly in almost every game that they played with Jones playing on his broken fibula and with 44 year-old Philip Rivers taking the snaps behind the center.

o

I think initially the Colts caught teams unprepared for their offense. Mostly I believe it is how they were using Warren. They went from an offense with no tight end threat to one that was attacking from all over the field. There were obviously other things but defenses were bound to catch up (unless you actually think this was the greatest offense ever to grace an NFL field). They seemed to be catching and Jones got injured before we could know if we could react to those changes. It is still an open question and as someone who is not sold on DJ or Ballard anymore I see this as a reason to run them back for another year.

o


I don't think that this was one of the greatest offenses of all-time. I do think that this was at least a 12-5 team with a healthy Daniel Jones and with at least 1 or 2 other key players also being healthy. As I said in another post, this 2025 Colts team that started the season at 8-2 had an entirely different feel to it than almost all of the mediocre Colts teams of the recent past, and not just because of the offense ...... the 2025 Colts weren't just beating bad teams, they were absolutely hammering them. And when they came up against what appeared to be a daunting challenge (playing the Chargers on their home-field in southern California), the Colts beat them handily ...... they led by a score of 38-17 entering the 4th quarter, and coasted to a 38-24 win.



The bad news is that we Colts fans are going to be going into another season in 2026 without the assuredness that it will likely be a Peyton Manning-like/Andrew-Luck-like almost certainty of at least 10 or 11 wins and a playoff berth ...... the good news is that the team is young, the starting QB (Daniel Jones) is in his prime, and while the potential floor may not be high, the potential ceiling certainly is very high.

o

It would be shocking if Jones played 17 games next year. He has only done it once in his career and will be coming off an achilles injury. Who is going to back him up will most likely be critical to us ending up 12-5. I am comfortable with AR (if his eye clears up) but most here are not. Any thoughts?

Riley Leonard will be the backup and odds are he’ll see action next year because it seems they are all in on Jones

I said in hindsight, believe me I wanted it to work and I had high hopes but looking back now they were never the same after the Steelers game.

And I gotta be a realist here, I’m not sold on Jones

I think this is going to be true. What a waste of a draft pick if it turns out this way. Ballard was relieved that it was Houston that traded up so we still got to choose AR and didn't get stuck with Will Anderson if my memory serves me right
.

IIRC, they were not debating AR or Anderson. They were all in on a QB, so it was AR or Levis.

I have that same impression/memory.