5 Colts Things: Colts have No. 1 scoring offense in NFL, red zone surge continues, Josh Downs shines on key plays, Adetomiwa Adebawore comes through with important pressure late vs. Cardinals

1. The Colts' offense continues to be at or near the top of the league in several categories.

This list is pending Monday night results for the Bills, Commanders and Bears. But the Colts are, currently, first in the NFL in scoring offense:

The Colts are one of three teams, along with the Bills and Lions, to score 30 or more points in four games this season. They've scored 194 points over their first six games, the most any Colts team has scored in the first six games of a season since the team moved to Indianapolis in 1984.

While the Colts "only" won by four against the Cardinals, their +78 point differential is by far the highest in the NFL – no other team, pending Monday night's results, is above +50.

Per NFL research, the Colts' 19 combined punts, giveaways and sacks taken is not just the fewest in the NFL this season, it's the lowest total through six games of any team in the Super Bowl era:

And the Colts rank at or near the top of the NFL in several other statistical categories:

2. Some context on Daniel Jones only being sacked just once.

Jones was sacked by the Cardinals' Baron Browning with 9:28 left in the first quarter – he was quickly pressured by linebacker Zaven Collins, then dropped by Browning – but that was the only sack he took on Sunday.

That continued a trend that's built up through the first third of the 2025 season: Jones has not only avoided taking sacks, but he's made plays under pressure.

Jones' pressure to sack rate is 6.7 percent, which is the best in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 40 dropbacks under pressure. He's been sacked just five times in six games; in the New York Giants' season opener every year from 2022 through 2024, Jones was sacked at least five times each of those three games.

There's more here, and this is maybe the most impressive part of this. The Denver Broncos have 30 sacks this season, 10 more than any team, and are on pace to shatter the 1984 Chicago Bears' NFL record of 72 sacks in a season.

When the Colts faced the Broncos in Week 2, Jones was sacked one time.

Against the Cardinals, Jones completed all nine of his pass attempts when pressured for 79 yards with a touchdown; he was sacked once and scrambled once, with that scramble resulting in a three-yard touchdown.

3. The Colts' offense has completely turned things around in the red zone.

Following their Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Colts converted just nine of their 19 trips inside the red zone into touchdowns (47.4 percent), which stood at 25th in the NFL. Over the last two weeks, the Colts are 10 for 10 in the red zone, bumping them all the way from 25th to 10th in the NFL now with a 65.5 percent red zone touchdown rate.

The issue for the Colts' red zone offense in the first four weeks of the season in the red zone was, for the most part, penalties. They were whistled for a penalty on five red zone possessions in their first four games, and converted just one of those into a touchdown.

"It's really been in the red zone, last couple weeks, and we got to clean that up because that's huge," head coach Shane Steichen said after that Rams game. "I mean, there was probably a couple where we could have scored 34 with touchdowns."

Over their last two games, the Colts have been penalized once in the red zone; they managed to overcome that for a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 5.

The Cardinals entered Week 6 allowing a touchdown on just 47.1 percent of opposing red zone possessions (fourth in NFL) and had prevented opponents from scoring on 50 percent of their goal-to-go drives (second). The Colts went four-for-four in both situations.

"I think it's just playing clean football, and that's penalty free down in there," Steichen said Monday. "The penalties will hurt you and are drive killers. We've done a good job offensively of eliminating those down there for sure, and then have been executing there at a high level. People ask like, 'Well, what's changed?' We scheme and we do the same things we've been doing, and we've just been executing. Our guys have been playing well."

4. Josh Downs came up with two huge plays in the fourth quarter.

With the Colts trailing by seven early in the fourth quarter, Downs accelerated away from Cardinals safety Budda Baker and flashed open in the back of the end zone, where Jones tossed him a pass on second-and-goal at the five-yard line. Downs tapped both feet in bounds and absorbed a thumping hit from Cardinals safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, impressively hanging on to the pass for his first touchdown of 2025.

Then, later in the fourth quarter, Downs had arguably an even bigger reception. Facing a third-and-eight at the Cardinals' 12-yard line, and the Colts down by three with 5:48 to go, Downs motioned from a trips bunch formation outside the far numbers to just beyond the far hash, which successfully got him matched up against linebacker Mack Wilson Sr.

As Downs got into his route, he did a tremendous job setting up Wilson by not giving him a tell of if he'd run his route to the linebacker's inside or outside. Downs, within the timing of the play, quickly accelerated to Wilson's inside shoulder and away from the linebacker; Jones threw an accurate pass, allowing Downs to create more separation as he caught the ball. Downs quickly turned upfield, away from cornerback Akeem Davis-Gaither, and picked up nine yards – good enough for a first down.

"Those are matchups you want as a receiver," Downs said. "Coach put me in a good position and allowed me to make a play."

Running back Jonathan Taylor punched in the go-ahead – and ultimately game-winning – touchdown two plays later. If Downs doesn't pick up that first down, the Colts tie the game; Arizona, then, only would've needed a field goal to re-take the lead and potentially win on the ensuing possession.

Downs, on his 26 receptions, has picked up 15 first downs; nine of those have come on third or fourth down. While Jones has trust in plenty of the Colts' pass-catchers, he's targeted Downs more than any player on third or fourth down (12 times; Tyler Warren has nine targets, Michael Pittman Jr. has seven).

And Downs' nine first downs on third/fourth down receptions are tied for eighth in the NFL.

"He's just a really smart football player, someone who's going to make the right decision, feel the space and get there," Jones said. "I think we have a lot of guys who do that. So, Josh has come up big in a lot of those situations, but I have a lot of trust and confidence in all our guys in those situations."

5. Adetomiwa Adebawore delivered a play when the Colts' defense needed it.

The Colts' defense, while several defensive backs, wasn't able to consistently stop Arizona's offense on Sunday. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett, notably, went 10 of 17 for 126 yards on second/third and seven or more yards to go; he converted three third-and-10+ plays into a first down.

So when the Cardinals stared down a third-and-13 at the Colts' 26-yard line with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter, and the score tied at 24, it wasn't a slam dunk the Colts would get off the field.

But at the snap, defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore exploded into the pocket with a nasty pass rush move. He set up right guard Will Hernandez like he was going to rush to Hernandez's outside shoulder, then athletically hopped inside; Adebawore then used his hands to push toward Brissett and hit the Cardinals quarterback as he threw. The pass fell incomplete – it didn't have a shot at being completed – and the Cardinals settled for a field goal after scoring touchdowns on their previous two possessions.

That allowed the Colts to drive downfield and take the lead, instead of merely tie the game, which wound up being the deciding factor in Week 6.