Stampede Blue
The Indianapolis Colts are on the road to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 14 of the 2025 season, kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Well we’ve hit that part of the season we were all dreading and things are not going great. But how bad is it, really? Indy’s worst loss of the season was absolutely in week 9 against the Steelers, a 7 point loss on the road to a middling team lead by a geriatric quarterback. Then they got a win in Germany, had a bye, lost by 3 on the road to a team with Patrick Mahomes as their quarterback and then lost by 4 to a team with the best defense in the league. I’m not going to argue that any loss is good, but given the context the sky isn’t falling nearly as hard as the media and most Colts fans would have you believe.
Even a loss today wouldn’t be an indicator that the 2025 Colts are a bad team. But a loss today would be very, very bad for the team’. Indy will be on the road in Seattle (another very difficult place to play on the road to go along with Pittsburgh and Kansas City) and then have the always difficult 49ers at home the following week. I think at best you hope to split those games. So if Indy loses this week they’re staring down 9-6 at best heading into the final two divisional matchups in week 17 and 18. This game isn’t a “must win” but it might be the second most “winnable” game they have left.
To make things more difficult there’s rain in the forecast and since losing DeForest Buckner the Indy run defense has struggled. Offensively teams have done their best of late to make the Colts one dimensional, forcing Daniel Jones to beat them and while I highlighted the fact that the losses of late haven’t been awful losses, Jones hasn’t been able to make those teams pay for selling out to stop Jonathan Taylor.
One thing I feel the offense needs to do is rely more on 11 personnel, keeping Josh Downs on the field more. Shane Steichen has often pulled Downs in favor of Drew Ogletree and proceeded to pass the ball. The offense, as a whole, is not better with Ogletree getting reps over Downs. So today, even in the rain, I hope to see Downs on the field far more than in recent weeks.
This game might determine the Colts fate for the 2025 season and as much as I hate to say it, I think they’re due for a win in Jacksonville.
Prediction:
Jaguars: 21
Colts: 23
As always, go Colts.
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This is your week fourteen open thread so hang out here, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Go wild (within reason)!
Go Colts!
