1. The Colts' offense is all over the top five in several key statistical categories.

We're just going to present this as a chart (advanced metrics per Pro Football Focus):

It should be noted here, too, that the Colts (prior to Monday Night Football) are third in points allowed per game (17.8, behind only the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos) and are ninth in EPA per play allowed on defense (-.044). The Colts' defense has consistently come up with splash plays – they're 10th in negative plays forced (31) and fifth in takeaways (eight) – that've directly or indirectly ended opposing drives before the end zone.

The Colts +74 point differential leads the NFL through five games; they're the 66th team to be +74 or better after five games in the Super Bowl era, per Stathead. Of those previous 65 teams, 58 made the postseason; 25 played in the Super Bowl.

The challenge, of course, will be sustaining this success over the rest of the regular season. One of those teams that started strong – the 2009 New York Giants, who were 5-0 and +80 – went from beating the Oakland Raiders, 44-7, in Week 5 to losing their next four games and ultimately missing the playoffs with an 8-8 record. Five weeks of success is not a guarantee of anything beyond it; the Colts' collective mentality, though, is in a good place heading into Week 6.

2. Daniel Jones took what the Raiders gave him.

A few circumstances led Daniel Jones to have his lowest yards per attempt (7.3) of any game this season. First: Wide receiver Alec Pierce was out with a concussion, and the Colts opted to use Ashton Dulin (47 snaps) instead of Adonai Mitchell (seven snaps, all in the fourth quarter). While Dulin hauled in two of his three targets of 20+ air yards, the Colts' offense shied away from throwing deeper vertical routes against the Raiders.

With the Colts cognizant of the game-wrecking ability possessed by Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, Jones had his quickest time to throw (2.38 seconds) of the season and 55 percent of his passes were short of the sticks, per Pro Football Focus. But that's also what the Raiders' defense was giving him; Jones got the ball to his pass catchers with room for them to make a play to churn out a few extra yards.

"I thought today, the style of defense they were playing, it's a lot underneath stuff and guys making someone miss and getting up field," Jones said. "Josh had a number of plays I felt like where he caught it underneath, made a guy miss and found five or six extra yards."

Facing a third and 12 at the Raiders' 23-yard line early in the second quarter – when Las Vegas was leading, 3-0 – Jones connected with Downs for one of those plays he described. Jones had to throw short of the sticks, as safety Jeremy Chinn blitzed from depth and running back D.J. Giddens had to quickly get from his right, where he was chipping Crosby, to his left to pick up Chinn.

Jones delivered an on-target throw as he was hit to Downs at about the 17-yard line; Downs turned upfield toward the sideline, made safety Tristin McCollum miss, then spun away from cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly to reach the 11-yard line and pick up a first down. Tyler Warren caught his first receiving touchdown in the NFL two plays later to get the Colts on the board.

Zooming out, Sunday's game was another marker for Jones' ability to operate in different ways within the Colts' offense. The gameplan called for quick, underneath throws, and he was able to deliver those not just accurately, but accurately enough and with the right timing to allow his pass-catchers to make plays after getting the ball in their hands.

Jones, pending Monday Night Football, leads the NFL with a QBR of 79.6.

3. The Colts' offensive line took care of the Raiders both in the pass and run games.

The Raiders arrived in Indianapolis with at least one sack in 39 consecutive games, which was the NFL's longest active sack streak. The emphasis there is on "was," as the Raiders did not register a sack in a game for the first time since Week 18 of the 2022 season.

Part of this was the Colts having a plan for Crosby, not just with Jones getting the ball out quick but with extra attention to him in pass protection. On a third-and-eight early in the third quarter, Crosby lined up as a wide nine rusher to tight end Tyler Warren's outside shoulder; Warren chipped Crosby and released, then running back Jonathan Taylor chipped and released. Had the play extended further, right tackle Braden Smith was waiting to get hands on Crosby, too; Jones was able to rip a 20-yard completion to Dulin with Crosby nowhere near him.

When Crosby did get matched up one-on-one against Smith or left tackle Bernhard Raimann, those guys handled him well; Crosby's pash rush win rate, per Pro Football Focus, was 5.6 percent, his lowest in a single game since Week 3 of the 2024 season. It was just the fourth time Crosby had a pass rush win rate under 6 percent in a game since the start of the 2021 season; one of those other three games was the Colts' Week 17 win over the Raiders in 2023.

"It was all hands on deck to stop him," Steichen said. "I thought Braden did a phenomenal job the entire game. I thought the tight ends did a great job when we were max protecting them, the tailbacks chipping. Obviously, he's a game wrecker, and so that was the plan going in – to try to stop him. I thought our guys did a great job."

In the run game, the Colts were able to get left guard Quenton Nelson on the move quite a bit. He pulled to the right, running from the far hash to the near numbers, on Taylor's first touchdown of the game; on a first down run late in the second quarter, Nelson pulled from the far hash to the far numbers and drove Raiders linebacker Elandon Roberts down the field and out of the play; midway through the third quarter, Nelson again pulled from the near hash to far numbers, where he got hands on cornerback Darien Porter to open a path for Taylor to pick up eight yards.

Nelson also cleared out defensive tackle Jonah Laulu on a 12-yard Taylor run, strained to keep a defender away from Taylor on a one-yard touchdown run and controlled Laulu (with center Tanor Bortolini pulling behind him and climbing to the second level to block linebacker Devin White) to open a lane for Taylor to punch in a six-yard touchdown.

"He's special, now," Steichen said. "It's almost like when we're game planning, he's like a skill player. It's like, 'Hey, how can we be creative to get him out in space and run behind him and set him up so we can set JT up behind him?' There is that element to it as well because he is that good. So, we always try to find ways in the run game to utilize his strengths whether that is him out on the edge pulling or inside, because he's got all the ability in the world to do everything."

4. Grover Stewart had a hand – literally – in an interception for the third time this season.

Stewart helped create overthrows by pushing the pocket into Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix in Weeks 1 and 2, leading to interceptions by safety Cam Bynum. On Sunday, he created another interception, and it came in a game-changing situation.

With 3:59 left in the second quarter, the Raiders were down, 14-3, but had the ball on the Colts' 11-yard line. A touchdown in that situation would've been huge for Las Vegas, seeing as they deferred the opening kick and would start with the ball to begin the second half.

The Colts had five defensive linemen on the field, with Stewart playing directly over center Jordan Meredith. At the snap, Stewart drove Meredith back, but right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson quickly helped, getting hands on Stewart to stop his rush.

Stewart, though, kept his eyes on quarterback Geno Smith the whole time. As Smith's eyes picked up wide receiver Jack Bech flashing near the "T" and "S" in "Colts" in the end zone, he ripped a throw – but Stewart got his arms in the air, with his right hand deflecting Smith's pass.

Defensive end Laiatu Latu, who – along with defensive end Kwity Paye – dropped into coverage on the play, leapt in the air and hauled in his second interception of the season.

"Really it was because of Grove," Latu said. "He did a good job pressing the pocket, getting his hand up. He knew that Geno throws short, especially in the red zone. As I was dropping, my job's to drop, QB key, and I saw Grove tipped it, landed right in my hands."

This is classic Grover Stewart, in a way – he's made a career out of making plays that don't show up in the box score so his teammates can make plays that do.

Stewart later exited the game with a bicep injury. Steichen on Monday said he did not have an update on Stewart's injury, though he said he didn't think it was serious.

5. How Segun Olubi blocked a punt.

First things first. Have you ever thought about how it'd feel to block a punt? You're sticking your hands in to try to stop a ball that's coming off a punter's foot at a pretty high velocity from an awfully close distance.

"I'm gonna be real, it hurts," Olubi said, laughing. "After that, it's lit, and then everybody want to dap you up, they're slapping your hand left and right and you're like 'man, this thing hurts.'"

Olubi was able to block the punt, though, because of the work he and special teams coordinator Brian Mason put in during practice and meetings.

The Raiders lined up in "something weird," Olubi said, leading the Colts' punt coverage unit to shift pre-snap into a look that "protected ourselves the best way possible." That look was not designed to block the punt; only two Colts players had their hand in the turf; they had five players total on the line of scrimmage, with three players behind those five, two players about 10 yards off the Raiders' gunners and Anthony Gould back deep.

At the snap, the only five players who rushed to affect the punt were those on the line of scrimmage. Olubi was lined up on the edge outside tight end Ian Thomas, who was the last Raiders blocker on the right. But Olubi saw something that led him to think he'd have a chance to block the punt, even though this wasn't a punt block playcall.

"I just know that the guy that was supposed to block me, that where his coach had put him, that was a tough spot for sure," Olubi said. "... Blocking an edge rusher from the line of scrimmage on a punt, just how deep the punter lines up, that's tough."

Olubi, who ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash at his pro day in 2022, sprinted past Thomas and toward Raiders punter A.J. Cole to block the punt. He pointed to the coaching of Mason as preparing him for that moment – "being intentional with your eyes," Olubi said – which led to the Colts taking a 14-3 lead midway through the second quarter.