The Indianapolis Colts looked incredibly solid on Sunday when they hosted and beat down the visiting Miami Dolphins to the tune of 33-8. The often-criticized Daniel Jones was excellent and led the Colts to points on seven possessions out of seven. So, no punts or turnovers, just points on all seven possessions.
No other NFL team has done that since 1978. Raise your hand if you would have guessed that Jones would be the quarterback to do it.
Jones indeed was incredibly efficient, completing 22-29 for a 75% completion rate. He threw for 272 yards, one touchdown and ran for two more.
“Danny went out there and crushed it today,” wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “I’m not sure it could’ve went better.”
Daniel Jones wasn’t surprised by the team’s performance
There was a lot of skepticism of Jones heading into the 2025 season and rightfully so. He was largely a disappointment with the New York Giants outside of the 2022 season (even then) and he was brought in more as an insurance policy for Anthony Richardson than anything.
But, the way Jones played today, he looked like the confident veteran that the Colts‘ brass was hoping he could be.
“I don’t think it was surprising to us,” Jones said. “I mean, we’ve had a lot of confidence based on our preparation and the work we put in through training camp – and kind of where we think we’ve grown and improved. You always got to go out there and do it on the field and perform, so there’s that element to it. But no, we weren’t surprised, but like I said, now the challenge is to grow with it, build and continue to develop as a team, as an offense.”
If he keeps playing like this, Richardson won’t be seeing the field any time soon.
Shane Steichen said Daniel Jones has handled the little things
Colts‘ head coach Shane Steichen was hoping he could resurrect Jones’ career, and maybe he has. Maybe the win over the Dolphins was just an aberration and we’ll be in Week 8 looking and back and thinking, ‘remember that time we thought Jones would be good or something?’ Who knows?
Steichen said after the game that Jones has been paying attention to preparation details.
“He checked the protection on it. He made a few of those all game. There’s a lot of that stuff that goes on. There was another one on 4th down where they checked it and brought [cover] 0, and he threw it to [Josh] Downs. He makes a lot of plays like that for us,” Steichen said about an opening-drive check call from Jones.
“There’s no doubt. There’s all those little things — the game within the game — those are conversations that happen in offensive staff meetings. Then he brings those [takeaways] to the offensive meetings and he stands up and talks about it like, ‘Hey, here’s what I’m going to do on this one fellas,‘ and guys are locked in and ready to go.”
At least in Week 1, the Colts look like they may be getting things together on offense. But, we’ll know more when we find out if the Dolphins are truly just that awful.
The Daniel Jones the Colts Thought They Were Getting