Twenty-two points, 267 passing yards, no touchdown passes. That's the Colts' afternoon in a box score, and it's the reason they're 2-3 after a 34-22 loss to Pittsburgh.
Daniel Jones threw 44 times and completed 24 for 267 yards, no interceptions, a 72.8 adjQBR. The yardage is real. The payoff isn't. Laquon Treadwell was targeted eight times and caught two. Keenan Allen got nine targets and turned them into five catches for 45 yards. Deion Burks was thrown to twice and caught neither. The only Indianapolis touchdown came on a 1-yard run by tight end Tyler Warren, who spent the rest of his day as the offense's most reliable option: seven catches, 83 yards on nine targets, a 29-yard long. Josh Downs supplied the biggest play through the air, a 42-yarder among his three catches. Jonathan Taylor carried 15 times for 45 yards. Three yards a carry is not a running game, and when it disappears the Colts have no second way to finish.
Pittsburgh needed 31 throws to get what Indianapolis couldn't get in 44. Aaron Rodgers completed 22 of them for 235 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, a 125.1 adjQBR. He never had to force anything, because Jaylen Warren was doing the forcing. Fifteen carries, 101 yards, 6.7 a carry, a 50-yard long, one touchdown on the ground. Six catches on six targets for 87 more yards and a second score, that one covering 80.
That's the contrast, and it isn't subtle. One team kept handing the ball to a back averaging 6.7 a carry and 14.5 a catch. The other kept asking its quarterback to manufacture yards in small pieces against a defense that knew the run was gone. Seth McGowan gave the Colts a lift on kick returns, three for 84 yards with a 36-yard long, and it changed nothing about how hard every Indianapolis drive was.
The last points of the day were banked on Chris Boswell's 54-yard field goal with 3:43 left. After that, Jones threw incomplete toward Keenan Allen with Asante Samuel Jr. in coverage at 2:41, and the game was bookkeeping. DeForest Buckner got a sack. Akeem Davis-Gaither made seven tackles. The Indianapolis defense wasn't the problem, and it rarely is when the other sideline puts up 34 while your offense has one touchdown to show for a full afternoon of possessions.
Here's the claim: the Colts aren't a quarterback away from anything. They're a finishing offense away from it, and this loss is what that looks like. Jones protected the ball and still left his team needing Taylor to break a long one, and Taylor got 15 carries for 45 yards. That's a formula for 22 points, and 22 points doesn't beat a Rodgers-Warren-Boswell operation that never had to sweat. Pittsburgh is 3-2 with a quarterback completing 22 of 31 and a back who went for 101 on the ground and 87 through the air. Indianapolis is 2-3 with a red-zone problem it hasn't shown any sign of solving.
