Michael David Smith ,
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First place in the AFC South is on the line on Sunday when the 8-4 Colts take on the 8-4 Jaguars. The betting line says the Colts are 1.5-point favorites. But the game is in Jacksonville, where recent history says the Colts find ways to lose.
The Jaguars have won 10 consecutive home games against the Colts, a strange streak given that the Colts have often been the better team but have somehow managed to lose games they should have won.
The streak, which includes nine games in Jacksonville and one in London, has become something Colts fans hate to hear about in the week leading up to their annual road game against the Jaguars, but it’s impossible to ignore as an important factor in a big game on Sunday.
The last time the Colts won in Jacksonville, the year was 2014 and the starting quarterbacks were Andrew Luck and Blake Bortles. The next year, when the Colts played in Jacksonville they led 13-9 at halftime and then turned in one of the worst second halves in NFL history, getting outscored 42-3 to lose by a final score of 51-16. That started an ugly streak for the Colts.
The most notable game of the streak came in Week 18 of the 2021 season. The Colts needed only to win to make the playoffs. The Jaguars needed only to lose to clinch the first overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. With those kinds of incentives, it seemed impossible that the Colts could lose, which is why Indianapolis was a 15-point favorite. Instead it was the Jaguars who won by 15, a 26-11 shocker that was one of the biggest upsets in recent NFL history.
The Colts haven’t made the playoffs since blowing that opportunity. This season, they have a great chance. Especially if they can finally break their losing streak in Jacksonville on Sunday.
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