NASHVILLE – Week 3, for some reason, is an annual banana peel for teams off to fast starts.

For example: The undefeated Green Bay Packers were talked about as arguably the best team in the NFL after two weeks. On Sunday, they lost, 13-10, to the previously-winless Cleveland Browns – while, a few states over, the Colts were dismantling the winless Tennessee Titans, 41-20, at Nissan Stadium.

The Colts didn't just avoid a trap game on Sunday. They dominated the Titans, from Kenny Moore II's 32-yard pick six to Jonathan Taylor's third touchdown.

This was a game, on paper, the Colts should've won – but it's a game that, in reality, 2-0 teams are prone to losing. So that the Colts won in convincing fashion just might say quite a bit about what this group can accomplish in 2025.

"We talked about being relentless, disciplined for 60 minutes this week – that was the focus," head coach Shane Steichen said. "I thought our guys came out and did that."

The Colts are 3-0 and have scored 103 points in those wins over the Titans, Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins – the most points a Colts team has scored in its first three games of a season since 1967. Taylor's 46-yard touchdown will have a prominent place on his career highlight reel; quarterback Daniel Jones did not turn the ball over and was not sacked while completing 72 percent of his passes for 228 yards with a touchdown and a passer rating of 113.4.

Defensively, the Colts sacked Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward four times and held him to just 5.8 yards per attempt; veteran running back Tony Pollard carried 16 times for just 45 yards.

Zooming out, the Colts averaged 6.9 yards per play to the Titans' 4.3 and were penalized four times to Tennessee's eight. The Colts were the more disciplined and more physical team, and consistently kept the Titans are arm's length, not letting the home team generate any sort of sustained momentum.

"I think at the end of the day, it wasn't even really about them, it was about us," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "It was just an opportunity for us to play our type of, our brand of football. Offensively, be efficient and take care of the ball, defensively play physical, execute and take the ball away. And then we even got a punt in today, so congratulations to Rigo. So I think it was just a complete team win, and we just gotta continue to build on it."

Sanchez's punt was the product of a rare offensive blemish – it came after the Colts' first three-and-out of the season – but the Colts are still the only team since 1945 to punt one or fewer times in the first three games of a season. More importantly, they're 3-0 for the first time since 2009.

And while the Colts were able to avoid a classic "trap" game because of their focus and discipline leading up to Sunday, there's an acknowledgement that a 3-0 record won't matter if that same focus and discipline doesn't continue.

"I think it's just a different energy," defensive end Kwity Paye said. "Just wanting to win every single day, not just on Sundays. It starts every single day, prepping and just wanting to compete every single day and just be better. It's like we just continue to carry momentum from Monday all the way through Sunday."

While the vast majority of teams that start a season 3-0 make the playoffs, there's a recent example of one that didn't: The 2024 Seattle Seahawks, who went 3-0, lost their next three games and wound up just outside the playoffs last year with a 10-7 record.

In 2021, the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos both started 3-0 and finished with losing records.

"We just gotta continue to prove we can be consistent and continue to build on these things and definitely not let complacency set in," right tackle Braden Smith said. "Definitely excited to be 3-0, but it's something I tell myself — if we lose the rest of the games, then it doesn't really matter."

But the point here is any team can say they're preaching discipline and focus after a strong start to a season. Not every team is able to turn that mantra into a 21-point win.

And over the last few years, the Colts have been that plucky underdog playing spoiler in Week 3 – think back to 2022, when the Colts beat the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3; in 2023, the Colts took out the eventual AFC No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens in overtime.

In 2025, it wasn't the underdog Titans taking out the Colts.

It was the Colts doing what good teams do.

"We saw it throughout camp – we thought that we were this team, and everybody just kind of kept throwing us under the bus for whatever reason," wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. "And it's nice to be 3-0, but just got to keep doing it."