1. The Colts' red zone issues with penalties continued.

The Colts, prior to Monday Night Football's doubleheader, are 15th in the NFL in total penalties committed with 28, but ahead of only the Green Bay Packers for the most penalties committed in the red zone with 10 (the Packers have 11).

Six of those 10 penalties have been called on the Colts' offense, including a 10-yard offensive pass interference penalty assessed to tight end Tyler Warren in Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

The Colts, this season, have settled for field goals on four of their five red zone possessions that had a penalty inside the 20 (a possession against the Broncos saw two red zone penalties called on the Colts); against the Rams, the Colts settling for a Spencer Shrader field goal after Warren's penalty meant their lead in the fourth quarter stayed at one possession.

The Rams drove 73 yards on their ensuing possession to tie the game with just over two minutes left.

"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. "I mean, there was probably a couple where we could have scored 34 with touchdowns."

On the Colts' 15 red zone possessions without a penalty this season, they've scored nine touchdowns (60 percent), including going two for two against the Rams on Sunday. For reference, in 2024, a 60 percent red zone touchdown rate would've been the 10th-highest in the NFL.

2. Daniel Jones made a couple of big-time plays under pressure, again.

Jones was pressured on 15 of his 40 dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus, and was sacked twice – once when Rams edge rusher Byron Young chased him down scrambling toward the edge, and another when he was strip-sacked in the fourth quarter (the Colts recovered the fumble).

This season, Jones has now been sacked four times on 50 dropbacks under pressure, good for a pressure-to-sack rate of 8 percent; that's a little under half of what Jones' pressure-to-sack rate was over his final two years with the New York Giants.

Notably, the Rams entered Week 4 tied for the NFL lead with 12 sacks; the team they were tied with, the Denver Broncos, sacked Jones just once back in Week 2.

But not only is Jones avoiding drive-killing sacks, he's making some standout throws under pressure. Against the Rams, he completed 11 of 13 passes when pressured for 172 yards with a touchdown; six of those completions resulted in a first down, and two of those first-down-generating completions came on third down (one of them was the third-and-four completion to wide receiver Adonai Mitchell that ended with his fumble out of the end zone).

Jones, through four games, has the fifth-highest Pro Football Focus passing grade under pressure (70.2) among starting quarterbacks. Only the Dallas Cowboys' Dak Prescott has completed a higher percentage of his passes when pressured than Jones (64.1 percent, Prescott is at 68.8 percent); only the Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson is averaging more yards per attempt under pressure than Jones (8.4; Jackson is at 9.2).

Jones is also one of eight quarterbacks without a throw graded as a "turnover-worthy play" by PFF when under pressure, and he's one of 12 quarterbacks with multiple plays graded as "big-time throws" by PFF when pressured.

This is not a frequent thing – Jones has been pressured on 50 dropbacks, 23rd-most in the NFL (with three teams below the Colts playing on Monday night). But when he is pressured, he's handling it well – and that's something the Colts can continue to build upon on offense.

3. What the Colts' defense did after Adonai Mitchell's fumble was encouraging for a few reasons.

Three of the Rams' first four drives lasted double-digit plays and gained at least 62 yards, punctuated by a 96-yard touchdown drive to end the second quarter. But the Colts' defense held strong early in the second half, forcing punts on four consecutive possessions before cornerback Mike Hilton forced a fumble that was recovered by defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore.

The point here, though, is after that first Rams drive of the second half ended with the punt, the Colts' defense was tasked with a challenge. After Mitchell fumbled out of the end zone, the Rams took over at their own 20-yard line with a three-point lead; allowing a touchdown on that ensuing drive could've given Los Angeles some difficult-to-overcome momentum.

And while the Rams did get a chunk gain on a Matthew Stafford completion to Puka Nacua, that's all Los Angeles generated.

"It doesn't matter what's going on in the game, we gotta go out there and execute," defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. "It's all about how you respond, and after that incident, I feel like we responded."

The Colts' defense forced a punt, then held the Rams to a pair of three-and-outs as the offense regrouped. After the second of those three-and-outs, the Colts' offense found a spark and drove 90 yards on 11 plays for a touchdown.

While the Colts' defensive success didn't last – the Rams generated back-to-back touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the game and take the lead – that it held strong after Mitchell's fumble was a nice marker for a team that, within its members, feels connected and together in a positive way.

"I thought our defense did a hell of a job bouncing back from that, just keeping us in the game," Steichen said. "And obviously, we go take the lead there. We didn't do enough at the end."

4. The Colts' pass rush had plenty of good moments.

The Colts pressured Stafford on 44.9 percent of his dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus, good for the seventh-highest rate in Week 4 (pending Monday Night Football). Defensive end Laiatu Latu was a menace, generating nine pressures – second-most in Week 4, behind only the Packers' Micah Parsons (10) and tied with the Giants' Abdul Carter and the Lions' Aidan Hutchinson – while notching his first sack of the season.

Adebawore had some splash plays, too – he helped safety Nick Cross finish a sack of Stafford on a key second-and-three in the third quarter – while defensive end Samson Ebukam had six pressures and Buckner had five.

"I feel like for the most part we did a pretty good job making him move around in the pocket," Buckner said. "The times that he did hold on to the ball, there were times we didn't get there but he was scrambling, trying to get some yards — it wasn't many — but we got him down a couple times. We could definitely be better, myself as well, some of those one-on-one opportunities I wish I had back, and I know some of the other guys do too. But we just gotta watch the film and learn from it and continue to get better as a front."

The Colts have totaled 67 pressures (most in NFL by 15) and seven sacks (5th) over their last two games against the Tennessee Titans and Rams; they had 21 total pressures (31st) and three sacks (25th) to open the season against the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos.

A key question after Weeks 1 and 2 was if those low pressure and sack totals were more the product of the Colts' pass rush struggling, or the Dolphins and Broncos having top-level protection plans for their quarterbacks. Two games isn't totally a trend yet, but things certainly are pointing in the right direction for the Colts' pass rush after Weeks 3 and 4.

5. Zooming out on a 3-1 start and a narrow loss to a Super Bowl contender.

This perspective isn't necessarily easy to find in the moments after a stinging, gutting loss like the Colts had on Sunday. But reflecting on how Week 4 went down – and how the Colts' first quarter of the 2025 season went – a few things come to mind.

First: The Colts were missing not just three starters, but three good-or-better starters in right guard Matt Goncalves (toe), cornerback Kenny Moore II (Achilles) and wide receiver Alec Pierce (concussion). The Los Angeles Rams had four players listed as questionable, but all played on Sunday, with three of them being starters (wide receiver Davante Adams, tackle Rob Havenstein and tight end Tyler Higbee). The Colts were, handily, dealing with more injuries in Week 4 than the Rams.

Second: As stated above, teams that commit 11+ penalties and turn the ball over three or more times have a winning percentage of .171 in the last decade. The Colts hit those not-to-be-celebrated marks against a team widely considered to be among the best in the NFL.

Third: The Colts showed resiliency a few times in this game. Jones didn't crumble after throwing his first interception of the season, and again, the Colts' defense didn't capitulate after Mitchell's fumble. Los Angeles had several chances to put the Colts away; instead, the Colts, on the road against a top-tier opponent, held a lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Fourth: The Rams' superstars showed up in big ways. Stafford threw for 375 yards and three touchdowns; Nacua had 13 catches for 170 yards; edge rusher Jared Verse generated six pressures and had a strip-sack. But despite those standout performances, at no points on Sunday did the Colts look overmatched.

A loss is a loss; come early January, the circumstances of the Colts' Week 4 defeat won't matter. But the Colts can feel confident in the team they've put together through four weeks – they, indeed, stacked up relatively well against the Rams.

The next challenge is showing week-to-week resiliency, especially with the opportunity ahead for this team. Three of the Colts' next four games are at home (Week 5 vs. Raiders, Week 6 vs. Cardinals, Week 8 vs. Titans); the combined record of the Colts' three home opponents is 3-9. In Week 7, the Colts go back to Los Angeles to face the 3-1 Chargers; Jim Harbaugh's side, though, just lost in Week 4 to the previously-winless New York Giants and – maybe just as importantly – lost starting left tackle Joe Alt to a high ankle sprain.

None of those records or injuries will matter, though, if the Colts don't clean up their own mistakes. But the opportunity is there for the Colts to go from being viewed, at least nationally, as a pleasant early-season surprise into being seen as a legitimate playoff contender.

We'll learn a lot about the Colts by the end of October – if we haven't learned a lot about this team already.