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First Impressions: Colts Fall To The Jaguars (Week 13)

Intro: Colts.com’s Andrew Walker takes a closer look at the Colts’ 30-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at EverBank Field.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —The Indianapolis Colts on Sunday fell to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-10, in their Week 13 matchup at EverBank Field.

What's top of mind for the Colts after falling to 3-9 on the year?

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
For the second straight week, the Indianapolis Colts had revenge on their minds heading into an AFC South Division rivalry matchup.

Photos from the week 13 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars

And for a second straight week, those hopes were dashed.

But unlike last week's close loss to the Tennessee Titans — a 20-16 decision in which Indianapolis had a lead in the fourth quarter before falling late — Sunday's game between the Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars wouldn't be so neck-and-neck.

Much like they did in their 27-0 victory Week 7 in Indianapolis, the Jaguars on Sunday jumped ahead early, 10-0, with few problems. While the Colts were able to cut that lead to 10-3 midway through the second quarter, the Jaguars wouldn't stop producing on their end.

By the time Indianapolis scored its only touchdown of the day — a 40-yard pass from Jacoby Brissett to T.Y Hilton with 6:49 left in the third quarter — Jacksonville was still able to claim a two-touchdown lead.

Two Jacksonville field goals later, and the Jaguars became the second AFC South team on the season to sweep the Colts, as they won going away, 30-10.

The loss for Indianapolis ensures a losing record for the team for the first time since 2011, when the Colts went 2-14.

REVEALING MOMENT
Fake punts will haunt.

The Colts' defense looked like it was going to get a stop on the Jaguars' opening drive of the game, as Jacksonville faced a 4th and 7 from its own 49-yard line. With Chester Rogers deep to receive a punt, however, the Jaguars found a soft spot up the middle, and punter Brad Nortman took advantage, as he launched a wobbly, but effective, pass to tight end James O'Shaughnessy for a huge 29-yard gain to the Indianapolis 22.

Just four plays later, the Jaguars would cash in, as quarterback Blake Bortles scrambled to find wide receiver Marqise Lee open in the middle of the end zone for a four-yard touchdown to put Jacksonville up, 7-0.

The Jaguars wouldn't look back from there.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Colts head coach Chuck Pagano really had no other choice, already down 21 points midway through the third quarter, to go for it on 4th and 2 from the Jacksonville 40-yard line. While Adam Vinatieri certainly could hit a 58-yarder, the Indy offense knew they needed to take a chance at more.

And not only did quarterback Jacoby Brissett find wide receiver T.Y. Hilton for a 40-yard touchdown on the play, but it was the first time all season in seven tries the Colts' offense was able to convert on fourth down.

The play was classic Hilton: he got himself open in the Jacksonville defense, and then was able to use his speed to snake around multiple defenders to go untouched the rest of the way to the end zone for the wide receiver's fourth touchdown grab of the season.

UNSUNG HERO
It's one thing to move into sixth place on the NFL's all-time rushing list, which is what Colts running back Frank Gore did in the second quarter of Sunday's game.

But almost exactly an hour later, Gore topped even that.

With a 16-yard run in the third quarter, Gore surpassed Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson for fifth place on the NFL's all-time rushing list. He had passed another Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis, for sixth place earlier.

Looking at Gore's stats over the years, he's just been so consistent, but perhaps most importantly, he's been available.

The 13-year NFL veteran, who is in his third year with the Colts, has now started 104 consecutive games at running back, and he's on pace to play in 16 regular season games for the eighth time in his career. He missed just one game in 2007, and missed two games on three other occasions.

Gore finished his day on Sunday with 13 carries for 61 yards.

WHAT WENT RIGHT
• The Colts' run game was on point when they went to it on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Indy offense, the Jaguars' growing lead made it impossible to stick to the run. The Colts, in all, had 26 carries for 141 yards, an average of 5.4 yards per carry, Included in those figures are runs for 25, 16, 12, 11 and 10 yards.

• Conversely, the Jaguars came into Sunday's game boasting the league's top rushing attack at 154.3 yards per game, but they were held to 27 carries for 96 yards (a 3.6 yards-per-carry average) on the day. Rookie running back Leonard Fournette, the league's seventh-leading rusher entering today's game, had just 20 carries for 57 yards (an average of 2.9 yards per carry) with a touchdown.

• The Colts went 4-of-4 on fourth-down tries throughout the ballgame after entering the game 0-for-6 on fourth-down attempts to this point of the season. Only one of those conversions — the 40-yard touchdown pass to Hilton — would be meaningful, however, as the rest of them came as the Colts worked on their hurry-up offense at the end of the game.

• Rookie Tarell Basham earned his second sack of the season, as he came around the edge to poke the ball loose from Bortles' grip early in the second quarter; Bortles recovered the fumble. But the play led to a 3rd and 16 for the Jaguars' offense, and one of the few third-down conversions they were unable to make, and Jacksonville had to settle for a field goal to go up 10-0.

WHAT WENT WRONG
• The Colts' defense struggled to stop the Jacksonville offense on third down all day, especially in the first half, as the Jaguars converted 7-of-9 tries in the first two quarters, including on both of their touchdown passes during that span. The Jaguars finished the day converting, in all, 9-of-15 tries on third down.

• The red zone, once again, was not friendly to the Colts — the league's worst red zone team — on Sunday. Converting just 39 percent of red zone trips into touchdowns coming into Sunday's game, Indianapolis would go 0-for-2 against the Jaguars in that area. The Colts also never found themselves in a goal-to-go situation on Sunday; Jacksonville, meanwhile, was 3-of-5 in the red zone and 2-for-3 in goal-to-gos.

• With their top cornerback, Rashaan Melvin, out with a hand injury, the Colts saw Blake Bortles put in a terrific performance, as he completed 26-of-35 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions for a 119.8 rating. Bortles has two 300-yard performances on the season; both have come against the Colts.

• Brissett struggled to get anything going against the league's top secondary, as he completed 21-of-36 passes for 174 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Also, after being sacked 10 times Week 7 against the Jaguars, Brissett was sacked just four times on Sunday, though at least one of them can be credited to good coverage, while another one came late when Brissett scrambled out of bounds for a loss instead of throwing the ball away to avoid a sack.

INJURY REPORT
The following players were injured during Sunday's game:

• Cornerback Pierre Desir (shoulder; did not return).

• Center Mike Person (leg; returned to the game).WHAT'S NEXT
The Colts travel to take on the Buffalo Bills next Sunday at New Era Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET on CBS. The Bills today fell to the New England Patriots, 23-3, to move to 6-6 on the season.

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