The Indianapolis Colts are on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars for their week five matchup on Sunday at 1:00 PM EST.

This week the Colts come into the game on their first winning streak of the young season. At two and two, the Colts have won back-to-back games at home and will look to extend their streak to three. The Jaguars enter week five having lost their first four games of the season, their head coach sitting in the top spot and their “generative prospect,” highly paid franchise quarterback, completing just 53% of his passes on the year.

If this game were played somewhere else, I would feel comfortable predicting a Colts win even if Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor missed the game due to injury. But Indy hasn’t won in Jacksonville in fourteen years. 14 years ago was a simpler time. Andrew Luck played football, Peyton Manning played football, I hadn’t even met my ex-wife yet. And the last time the Colts beat the Jaguars was 14 years ago in Jacksonville.

In 2020, the Frank Reich-led Colts went 11-5. That season the Jaguars went 1-15. Their only win was against the Colts.

The Indianapolis Colts are responsible for Urban Meyer’s only win as an NFL head coach.

For fourteen years, Colts vs. Jaguars, no matter the circumstances, an automatic win for the bad guys. Will this be the year Indy breaks the curse? After all, in recent years when the Colts have been much better than their opponent, they have lost the game. This year, Indy is missing its starting quarterback, running back and one starting lineup for nearly half of their other day. So I suppose this could be a good time to break the curse, but I just don’t see it.

Doug Pederson coaches for a living and as I just mentioned, the Colts are missing almost half of their starting lineup this week. Even if the Jaguars only win one game this season, it feels like it has to be this weekend. Just as the Cowboys and Lions always play on Thanksgiving, the Colts losing to the Jaguars in Jacksonville feels like an annual NFL tradition, certainly the worst annual tradition in existence. But tradition all the same.

If the Colts somehow win this game, we should build a statue of Steichen outside the stadium.

RELATED

Game information for Colts vs. Jaguars

Foals inactive

Opposing QB Analysis: Trevor Lawrence

For posterity: 5 questions about Big Cat Country

This is week five’s open thread, so stick around, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Go wild (within reason)!

Go Colts!