The Colts have played eight games this season. Four of them have felt like preseason games for the final few minutes.
In Weeks 1, 3, 5 and now 8, the Colts were bludgeoning their opponents so badly they were able to get backups into the game in the fourth quarter. The Colts have now ran 29 offensive plays while winning in "garbage time," per Pro Football Focus, easily the most in the NFL ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs (24), Buffalo Bills (22) and Detroit Lions (22).
With Sunday's 38-14 win over the Tennessee Titans, the Colts combined to beat their AFC South rival 79-34 this season. Prior to the 2025 season, the last eight Colts-Titans matchups were decided by 10 or fewer points. And in both of these games this year, the Colts were able to pull their backups off the bench to play in the fourth quarter; on Sunday, rookie quarterback Riley Leonard made his NFL debut.
"It's kind of nice," safety Cam Bynum said. "My legs are feeling a lot better than they would knowing that I get to rest for the whole fourth quarter."
The Colts' point differential, after Sunday's game, swelled to plus-114, the highest any team has had through Week 8 since the 2021 Buffalo Bills (+120). Running back Jonathan Taylor had another incredible game, quarterback Daniel Jones had a season-high 136 passer rating, the defense sacked Titans quarterback Cam Ward four times and cornerback Chris Lammons had a late interception to give the Colts at least one takeaway in all eight games this season.
"I thought it was just a great team win," head coach Shane Steichen said.
But this Colts didn't start the 2025 season aspiring to have the NFL's best record with the NFL's best offense through Week 8. That's not the end goal, certainly. But the end goal also is not, and has not been, top of mind for this team, which has committed to a certain process this season. It may sound banal, but there's critical importance to how, well, boring it may sound to someone outside the locker room of Lucas Oil Stadium or the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center.
"Mentally taking things one week at a time — as simple and as corny as that sounds, it's so real," Bynum said. "Not looking forward to the weeks after, not looking forward to we're guaranteed to be in the playoffs, none of that stuff maters. We gotta win every game in front of top us, and that was the reason we won those games back early in my career."
Bynum, as he alluded to, has been a part of these seasons before with the Minnesota Vikings; he's been on teams that started seasons 7-1 and 6-2. The teams that, historically, have capitalized on strong first halves to a season possess a similar mentality; ones that read into their success are prone to fading in the second half.
"As a team, you can't get satisfied," tight end Mo Alie-Cox said. "We know things like this league can change in a heartbeat. We talked about in the offseason, be focused on the process instead of the end result, so every week we come in — Monday, happy victory Monday, whatever. But as soon as those meetings are done, we reset and focus on the next opponent. And I think that's really helped us in our preparation."
The message from Steichen after Sunday's 24-point victory over the Titans – the team's final game of October – was one that highlighted another tried-and-true NFL adage.
"I think the season starts in November, December," Steichen said. "And so that's where it really starts to pick up. You've got to play at your very best starting in these next two months."
The Colts' schedule stiffens in the second half, with road games in hornets' nests at Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Seattle, plus four divisional games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans – two teams you can expect to be chasing the Colts come those post-Thanksgiving meetings.
The Colts have certainly brought it over their first eight games – blowing out opponents with losing records can be just as much a sign of a good team as beating teams with winning records – but the challenge will, inevitably, heighten come November and December. If the Colts want to play deep into January, they'll need to be up for what lies ahead.
But if how the Colts have handled success – including in the moments after another comfortable victory on Sunday – is any indication, they have the right mindset and process to navigate the challenges of the second half of the 2025 season.
"It just puts a bigger target on our back, which we understand and which we accept, and we understand we're going to get everyone's best shot," Taylor said. "So we gotta come in each and every single week, look each other in the eyes and figure out, how do we get better? How do we stay from getting complacent, because it's only going to get harder from here."
