Daniel Jones threw for 143 yards on 34 attempts and the Colts won 30-13. Only one of those is repeatable.
Indianapolis at 2-2 will read all week like a team steadying itself. The quarterback line says otherwise: 19 of 34, 143 yards, 4.2 per attempt, no touchdowns, one interception, a 53.9 rating, two sacks for 14 yards and a lost fumble. That is a losing afternoon stapled to a winning scoreboard, and the 30 is going to keep anyone from saying it out loud until it costs them a game.
The Colts didn't win this through the air. They won on Jonathan Taylor, who carried 20 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns with a long of 12, and on a defense that held Washington to 13 points. Taylor is the offense. Everything else is decoration.
Seth McGowan helped in the margins: six carries for 31 yards, plus four kickoff returns for 102 yards and a long of 29. When your quarterback is averaging 4.2 a throw, field position stops being a detail and becomes the plan.
Indianapolis got takeaways and pressure without needing much from the passing game. Jaylon Carlies intercepted a pass and returned it 7 yards. Justin Walley had eight tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. Akeem Davis-Gaither had eight tackles. Grover Stewart had two tackles for loss among his six stops. Laquon Treadwell led the receivers with five catches for 42 yards, and Tyler Warren added five for 41. That is the entire aerial output, and it was enough because Washington couldn't score.
Here's the play that explains the Commanders' 1-3 better than the final does. Fourth quarter, 1:53 left, shotgun. Athan Kaliakmanis throws incomplete deep right to Treylon Burks. Washington's last snap of consequence was a shot play that didn't land. Marcus Mariota is in the passing and rushing leader lists alongside Kaliakmanis, and Austin Ekeler is there in the run game, and none of them produced anything the box score bothered to record. That's what an unsettled quarterback room looks like from the outside.
Spencer Shrader's 44-yard field goal at 5:48 of the fourth had already finished it.
So which is it? A 2-2 team that found its formula, or a 2-2 team whose quarterback is being carried by a running back and a defense? I'll take the second, loudly. Indianapolis can win games this way. They can't win many. Taylor running 20 times for 95 and two scores is the whole margin, and the moment he gets slowed, Jones has to throw 34 times again. A 53.9 rating and 143 yards won't beat anyone left on the schedule.
The Commanders are the cautionary tale here, not the opponent. Rotating Kaliakmanis and Mariota, leaning on Ekeler on the ground, throwing deep on hope with the clock dying. That's 1-3 when the position is unsettled.
Indianapolis is 2-2 with a quarterback problem that a 30-13 final just covered up. Better week for the locker room than for the tape.
