With 17 seconds left on the game clock and the Colts trailing the Denver Broncos by two points, every set of eyes in Lucas Oil Stadium was fixed on Daniel Jones and the Colts offense as they lined up on the field.
Every set of eyes except one.
Spencer Shrader wasn't looking at the field. He had no intention of it.
The kicker was positioned to the left of the Colts' bench on the sideline with a small net and a football set up for practice kicks. He knew there was a strong likelihood he would be called upon to try to close out the game, and he was solely focused on going through his routine. He didn't even really know what was happening in the game – he just knew he needed to be ready to go.
With three seconds left, that call came. It was going to be a 60-yard field goal for the second-year kicker, whose longest career field goal was 48 yards. He set up as usual, repeating to himself one thing: God will love you no matter what, and you will get another opportunity.
As soon as the ball came off his foot, the kick felt off. He knew he hadn't hit it the best he could, but he couldn't see it – he'd been hit after the play and all he could see was a bright yellow flag on the ground.
For a moment, there was chaos.
The Broncos were called for a leverage penalty, negating the kick and awarding the Colts 15 yards. What was a 60-yard field goal turned into a 45-yard field goal.
And just as quickly as the chaos came, it left. Shrader wiped his mind clean of the previous kick. It's what he had to do. It's all he could do. After a deep breath and a few steps back, he looked up and lined up his kick.
The football sailed through the uprights, clean and good, and the next thing he knew he was on top of his teammates' shoulders as the fans at Lucas Oil Stadium roared.
He'd just won the game, and the Colts were 2-0 to start the 2025 season.
"It's just joy," Shrader said postgame. "That's the only emotion that you're feeling."
Head coach Shane Steichen was leaping and yelling as he ran onto the field. Tyler Warren, Daniel Jones and Quenton Nelson were sharing an elated group hug by the bench. Zaire Franklin and Luke Rhodes were among the first to reach Shrader and hoist him up in celebration. It was the kind of moment everyone could celebrate – few more than Rhodes, who as a long snapper knows firsthand the work Shrader puts in for moments like that.
"What a poised player Spencer is," Rhodes said. "He knew he was prepared, he knew we were going to get an opportunity there at the end to kick it and he just put it down the middle. That's just what he does. He's a great kid, he works hard, he's disciplined. I'm just so happy for him."
Of course, everyone in the Colts locker room knows the kind of discipline with which Shrader works; they all have that kind of discipline. It takes a special kind of work ethic to make it in the NFL, no matter what position you play, and they can all relate to that. Sometimes, that's among the only common ground they share – but it's enough.
"You got to be locked in, knowing everything is really on you," defensive tackle Grover Stewart said. "I talk trash to them (in practice), say y'all be chilling over there, y'all don't be doing nothing. But they're really working."
Stewart, just like everyone else watching Shrader on the sidelines, had the utmost confidence in the 26-year-old kicker. If anything, the missed 60-yard field goal only cemented the fact that Shrader would make the 45-yarder.
"He has a calmness about him," Steichen said. "He's just a happy-go-lucky guy, nothing really phases him. In that situation, you could tell he was calm, cool and collected when he got a second opportunity there. It was awesome to see."
Shrader credits that calmness, and his discipline, to his faith – his faith in God, his faith in his abilities and his faith that his hard work will pay off.
"I have faith, intentional conversation with my family, stoicism is something I like to study a lot," he explained. "I try to just fill my mind with positive things that help me and prepare me for that environment.
"You just have to trust that all of the hard work you've put in has gotten you to this point. The Lord has a plan for you and put you in that situation, and I believe in Him, I trust in Him, and I was able to execute."
"He puts a lot in his faith," Rhodes, who quickly bonded with Shrader over their shared faith when the kicker joined the Colts in 2024, said. "He knows that the Lord gives us the opportunity, and when the opportunity comes he's practiced and prepared for it and is ready to go."
Shrader's game-winning field goal was a career-high fifth made field goal of the game; he's 9-for-9 so far in the 2025 season and 11-for-11 in his career. After spending time on both the Colts' active roster and practice squad and bouncing around to the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs in 2024, Shrader has immediately become a dependable and trustworthy kicker for the Colts in 2025 – and one they don't take for granted.
"It takes a lot of guts, honestly," tight end Mo Alie-Cox said. "It's hard not to get nervous, because I know you're nervous if the rest of the team, the whole stadium is nervous watching it...but it's the way he goes about his work, day in and day out...when he went out there, we had the ultimate confidence in him."
Call it what you want: guts, confidence, preparation, discipline.
It all comes back to that one word, the one that helped the Colts win on Sunday and the one that means the most to Shrader.
Faith.
