On Monday, the Colts returned to the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center after their bye week with an 8-2 record, a two-game lead in the AFC South and the NFL's No. 1 scoring offense.
But this Colts team's focus, collectively, is not on those things that amount to past accomplishments. The 2025 Colts have had success sticking to a week-to-week, day-to-day process – which might sound boring and cliche, but has been incredibly important to getting them to the spot they're in now.
"Obviously, we've got a lot ahead of us," head coach Shane Steichen said. "My message all year hasn't changed, and it's not going to change. It's one day at a time and getting better and focus on the next opponent and control what we can control."
That mindset and message is necessary, as the final seven games of the 2025 season look to present quite a challenge for the Colts:
| Week | Opponent | Current Record |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | @ Kansas City Chiefs | 5-5 |
| 13 | vs. Houston Texans | 5-5 |
| 14 | @ Jacksonville Jaguars | 6-4 |
| 15 | @ Seattle Seahawks | 7-3 |
| 16 | vs. San Francisco 49ers | 7-4 |
| 17 | vs. Jacksonville Jaguars | 6-4 |
| 18 | @ Houston Texans | 5-5 |
By record, the "worst" two teams the Colts face down the stretch are the Chiefs and Texans. But using that descriptor for either team is wildly unfair.
The Chiefs have one of the greatest coaches in football history (Andy Reid), one of the greatest quarterbacks in football history (Patrick Mahomes) and one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history (Travis Kelce), plus a defensive coordinator with a history of diabolical game plans (Steve Spagnuolo). They've represented the AFC in five of the last six Super Bowls, including the last three.
The Texans have the NFL's No. 1 scoring defense (16.3 points per game), a stat bolstered by Houston being No. 1 in EPA per play allowed and No. 3 in success rate allowed; opponents have scored on a staggeringly-low 25.7 percent of their possessions (the next-lowest scoring drive rate allowed belongs to the Seahawks at 30.1 percent). The Texans, too, are two-time defending AFC South champions.
A world exists where all five of the Colts' remaining opponents make the playoffs. And that the Colts still have four games remaining against the two teams still chasing them in the AFC South means the job in 2025 is nowhere near complete yet.
"We just got to know that our work is not done," wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. "Yeah, we're sitting at 8-2, but we still have a lot of good teams out in front of us, and the AFC is very competitive this year. There's two other teams (Broncos, Patriots) that are sitting at 9-2. ... So, just knowing that we got to go out and finish our business, and it starts with the AFC South and the AFC, and we got one of the toughest in front of us. We've got to go to a tough place to play, and we got to do what we need to do."
As Pittman alluded to, the challenge begins Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead, where the Chiefs will look to avoid losing three consecutive games in the same season since 2017. Or, read another way: Mahomes has never lost three consecutive games in a season in his eight-year reign as the Chiefs' starting quarterback.
The Chiefs, as you might've guessed, are at 5-5 because they've lost two games in a row – in Week 9 to the Buffalo Bills and Week 11 to the Denver Broncos.
"We know that Kansas City is a hell of a football team," Steichen said. "They went to three straight Super Bowls. They've got one of the best players in the world playing quarterback for them, and they're very talented. So, we've got to be on all the details and the specifics going into this game, especially in the hostile environment this week."
