1. DeForest Buckner hit a top speed of 18.25 mph while chasing down Marcus Mariota. Here's why that's remarkable.
Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota probably thought he had a clear run to the end zone when he pulled a zone read and took off around the left edge in the first quarter of Sunday's game at Tottenham Stadium. The Colts' front seven crashed toward running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, and on the perimeter, safety Cam Bynum and cornerback Sauce Gardner were blocked.
Mariota hit his own 35-yard line without anyone ahead of him. All he had to do was not get caught from behind.
Just past midfield, a player lunged at Mariota and brought him down. The former Oregon Ducks quarterback turned around, saw who it was, and pointed with a look of "THAT WAS YOU?!" at his former teammate in Eugene: DeForest Buckner.
"I think he was surprised when he turned over and saw it was me," Buckner said. "I just kind of smiled and pointed at him."
According to NGS, Buckner hit a top speed of 18.25 miles per hour while chasing down Mariota. That's the fastest Buckner has run in a game since Week 11 of the 2021 season, and is the third-fastest top speed the 32-year-old Buckner has hit in his entire 11-year career.
And he had to give that kind of effort to prevent what would've been an 81-yard touchdown.
"He (was) scoring for sure," Buckner said. "I felt like there was nobody – nobody really expected him to pull it and none of us really expected him to pull it, and he did. I just took a drop step and started running and hauling. I felt like I was running like I was the last piece of defense, just chasing him down."
Buckner, by the way, didn't come out of the game after that sprint. He played the next
After the game, Colts left guard Quenton Nelson re-posted the clip of Buckner running down Mariota on his Instagram with the caption "The standard." Beyond his massive impact on Sunday's game – Buckner had three quarterback hits, including a crunching welcome-to-the-NFL pop on rookie quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis – the effort Buckner gives is, as Nelson said, the standard for the Colts.
The point of being the standard is others will strive to reach it. The standard Buckner sets is particularly high.
Buckner's top speed of 18.25 miles per hour, per NGS, is the third-fastest hit by a defensive tackle this season. The fastest belongs to Buckner's teammate, Adetomiwa Adebawore, who hit 20.15 miles per hour while chasing down Commanders wide receiver Antonio Williams on a touchdown nullified by a penalty in the fourth quarter on Sunday.
2. The Colts are a well-oiled machine when it comes to playing games overseas.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen last week was asked why he's stuck with an international strategy of flying to Europe Thursday night as opposed to earlier in the week.
"I think it's because it's worked, maybe," Steichen laughed.
The Colts' 30-13 win over the Commanders made Steichen three-for-three in winning international games, with previous wins in 2023 (Frankfurt, Germany over the New England Patriots) and 2025 (Berlin, Germany over the Atlanta Falcons). In all those games, the Colts took an overnight flight Thursday evening to their European destination, had players stretch upon arriving to their hotel, then held a walkthrough instead of a practice later on Friday. Preparation on Saturday remained the same as it would be stateside, and then gameday is still gameday, whether it's at a Premier League stadium or an NFL stadium.
Every win in the NFL is an organizational accomplishment. But internationally, the behind-the-scenes work from operations to equipment to training to nutrition to IT to video staffers joining with coaches to create as streamlined of an experience as possible is a major undertaking. The goal is to find ways to keep players at peak performance, even after an overnight flight and five-hour time different on a different continent.
One way that all showed up on Sunday: The Colts were penalized just one time.
"It's a great feeling to be 3-0 in Europe," left tackle Bernhard Raimann, a native of Austria, said. "Should probably start playing more games over here."
3. Daniel Jones knows he needs to clean up the turnovers.
The Colts climbed back to .500 on the season with wins over the Houston Texans and Commanders despite committing a total of five turnovers while generating only one takeaway. It's just the third time in franchise history the Colts have won consecutive games with 2+ turnovers and one or fewer takeaway (the other instances were in 2012 and 1963).
So the good news is the Colts are back to even a quarter of the way through the 2026 season. But quarterback Daniel Jones, who has four fumbles (three lost) and four interceptions on the season, acknowledged that's not exactly a sustainable winning formula.
"Definitely got to play better," Jones said. "Got to clean that up. Can't afford to turn the ball over like that. I think I just got to focus in on the details, understand (I) can't do it and make better decisions."
Jones last year didn't throw his fourth interception or have his fourth fumble of the season until Week 9. That's the version of Jones the Colts offense will look to get back to now entering the second quarter of 2026.
But one silver lining here is, while Jones turned the ball over twice in the first half, he didn't let things completely spiral out of control and ultimately did enough to help get the Colts to an opportunistic 30 points.
"A lot of things didn't go our way there but I was pleased with how the guys responded," Steichen said. "... Our offense picked it up. Not where we want to be but we picked it up and won the game pretty good."
4. Spencer Shrader continued his trustworthy kicking.
Shrader said on a recent episode of The Colts Show he always figured he'd be kicking a round ball at a Premier League stadium – he grew up playing soccer and briefly pursued a professional career in Brazil before committing to football.
That switch, eventually, took Shrader to a Premier League venue where he kicked three odd-shaped balls through the uprights on field goals of 48, 52 and 44 yards at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
"During the game, you're trying to not get overwhelmed and stay locked in to your job," Shrader said. "But there were those little moments where you're kind of looking around the stadium and you're like, I cannot believe we're in Tottenham Stadium. This is so cool.
"And then they showed (former Manchester United and England soccer star) Wayne Rooney. So (Rigoberto Sanchez) and I were looking up at Wayne Rooney, like, he's watching us. That's the craziest thing. We grew up watching him."
Rooney certainly had to be impressed with the guy kicking field goals for the Colts.
Admittedly, this is a small sample size, but: Shrader has made 29 of 30 field goals (96.7 percent) over his three NFL seasons, giving him the highest made field goal percentage in NFL history among kickers with 30 or more attempts. He's only one of three kickers to make over 90 percent of his field goals on at least 30 attempts, along with two active kickers (the Browns' Andre Szmyt and the Chargers' Cameron Dicker).
5. A look ahead to the Colts' next quarter of the season.
The Colts have a difficult four games ahead, three of which are away from Indianapolis in difficult road venues: At Pittsburgh (Week 5), vs. Tennessee (Week 6), at Minnesota (Week 7) and at Jacksonville (Week 8). The Colts haven't won at Acrisure Stadium since 2008 and haven't beaten the Jaguars outside Indianapolis since 2014; the Vikings are 16-11 at U.S. Bank Stadium since Brian Flores took over as defensive coordinator in 2023. The outlier here, then, is the Titans, against whom Steichen is 6-0 as Colts head coach.
But that history doesn't matter as much as you may think. What matters will be a few broad strokes here: First, cleaning up turnover issues on offense and finding solutions to more consistently generate both efficient and explosive plays; second, continuing to communicate and tackle well on defense after two solid showings in those regards against the Texans and Commanders.
