1. With Anthony Richardson out, Joe Flacco's steady hand – and strong arm – nearly led the Colts to a victory.

With the Jacksonville Jaguars leading, 34-20, and just five minutes left on the clock, the Colts leaned into the demeanor of their Week 5 starting quarterback. And Joe Flacco, the 17-year been-there-done-that veteran, helped set the right tone for the Colts' offense before they even hit the field for the first of two drives that wound up resulting in the game being tied at 34 only a few minutes later.

"He's poised," wide receiver Alec Pierce said. "They call him Joe Cool, that's kind of just his demeanor. He never gets too up, too down. So he was kind of telling us all 'Let's go, we can make plays, we can do this.' He just remained cool which is good, keeps everyone in that moment."

Moments like the final five minutes of the fourth quarter on Sunday were why the Colts signed Flacco this offseason: If Richardson wasn't able to play, they needed a backup who could – to use a baseball metaphor – not just get on base, but hit a home run if needed. Flacco, with a 45-yard completion to Pierce that set up a Trey Sermon one-yard touchdown and then a 65-yard game-tying touchdown to Pierce, hit the end of Sunday's game out of the park.

Thanks to Flacco's poise and ability to push the ball downfield, the Colts needed just five plays to erase the Jaguars' 14-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

"He did great," head coach Shane Steichen said. "Obviously he came out and operated at a high level, hit the big plays when we needed them, especially at the end. I mean, a (three)-play drive to get in there and the next was a two-play drive to bang it in there and get us tied up. He had a hell of a game."

Flacco got the start with Richardson sidelined due to an oblique injury. Richardson was limited in practice all week and then was downgraded from questionable to doubtful on Saturday.

"I didn't want to put him out there in harm's way on certain things," Steichen said of Richardson.

Flacco, though, was able to navigate the week of practice while not knowing for certain if he'd get to play Sunday.

"I did what I know," Flacco said. "Even in the last few weeks, I'm trying to stay in that routine of being the guy. Obviously, you can't quite get to that spot, like I wish there was something you could take and it would turn the blinders on, and you just thought you were starting all week and then all of a sudden you showed up right before the game and they told you you weren't, because there is a little bit of a difference, obviously. But that's the fight of being the backup is trying to maintain that routine every day.

"I tell people in that role, you kind of distract yourself from thinking about Sunday on Tuesday by that routine. You come in and you take care of Tuesday, you come in and you take care of Wednesday, and you feel good about what you did. You do this, this, this, you go home at night and you're like 'Oh man I did it all, I feel good.' You feel good and you're not thinking about Sunday and letting the weight of that kind of get on you."

The Colts hope to have Richardson back behind center as QB1 sooner rather than later. Steichen said Monday Richardson is "feeling good" and the Colts will evaluate his status as this week progresses.

2. The Colts' defense allowed explosive plays and didn't generate pressure on Trevor Lawrence.

Of the Jaguars' 497 yards, 279 (56 percent) came on six explosive plays – five of which directly or indirectly led to points for Jacksonville.

On the ground, running back Tank Bigsby rushed for touchdowns of 18 and 65 yards; through the air, Lawrence connected on an 85-yard touchdown to wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., a 61-yard heave to wide receiver Christian Kirk (which set up a touchdown) and a screen to Bigsby that gained 23 yards (which set up a field goal). The other explosive was a 21-yard completion to wide receiver Gabe Davis on which cornerback Jaylon Jones punched out a fumble recovered by fellow cornerback Chris Lammons.

The Jaguars averaged 49.5 yards per play on those six explosive gains, which helped account for 31 of Jacksonville's 37 points.

"If you look back at the game, the biggest thing that we need to improve on is not giving up the explosive plays," Steichen said. "We allowed too many of those and we gotta get those things cleaned up."

Those explosive plays (15+ yards on a pass, 10+ yards on a run) haven't been a glaring weakness for the Colts this season – they're 13th in explosive pass rate allowed (12.8 percent) and 20th in explosive run rate allowed (13.4 percent), which overall puts them around league average in total explosive plays allowed.

Another issue Steichen brought up on Monday was the Colts' lack of pressure on Lawrence, who was neither sacked nor hit and was hurried one time in 34 dropbacks on Sunday.

"Affecting the quarterback, whether that's with a four-man rush, a five-man rush or six-man rush, we gotta affect the quarterback early in games and we go from there," Steichen said.

The Colts are now 29th in the NFL in pressure rate (26.6 percent) and have had two games this season without a sack or quarterback hit. The caveat here is the Colts' defensive line has been severely depleted due to injury and was missing four key players on Sunday (defensive ends Samson Ebukam, Tyquan Lewis and Kwity Paye, and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner). The Colts have operated for months knowing they'd be without Ebukam, who sustained an Achilles injury during the second practice of training camp, and lost Lewis, Paye and Buckner over a three-week stretch in September.

Lewis (elbow) could return from injured reserve this season, Steichen said last week, and the earliest Buckner (ankle) could be activated off injured reserve is Week 7. Paye sustained a quad injury in the Colts' Week 3 win over the Chicago Bears and has missed the last two games.

Overcoming any of these injuries was always going to be a challenge for the Colts; the injury to Lewis, which occurred late in the Colts' Week 4 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, carried a significant impact on and off the field.

"That's another versatile player that can line up all over the line, so you're kind of losing someone everywhere," defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo said. "And then you're also losing a leader in the room, somebody who's a problem solver, when something goes wrong can help you fix it with whoever's on the field. You're losing a lot when you lose a guy like Tyquan."

The Colts, though, will need to find solutions regardless of the personnel on the field. Steichen on Monday re-iterated his confidence in his players as well as defensive coordinator Gus Bradley to get that job done.

"Gus has been doing this for a long time and he's had incredible defenses where he's been," Steichen said. "And I got the faith and trust in him to get this thing turned around."

3. Alec Pierce is solidifying his reputation around the NFL.

Michael Pittman Jr. wasn't overstating things when he said "Alec only needs about three passes a game to break a 100," after Pierce ripped off 134 yards on three receptions against the Jaguars. But let's put what Pierce did into some context.

Pierce now has three career games with at least 100 yards on three or fewer catches. He did it last year in Week 14 against the Tennessee Titans (three receptions, 100 yards) and in Week 1 of this season against the Houston Texans (three receptions, 125 yards) before his showing against the Jaguars.

Pierce on Sunday became the eighth player since 2000 to have at least three games with 100 or more yards on three or fewer receptions. The list is a who's who of deep threats from recent memory:

Pierce is absolutely establishing himself as one of the NFL's most dangerous downfield threats. His combination of speed and 50/50 ball skills, combined with cannon-armed quarterbacks (Richardson and Flacco) willing to push the ball downfield mean opposing defensive coordinators have to account for him on a weekly basis.

"I'm sure when they go over the defense, they're going to say '14, keep him in front of you, don't let him make the big play,' because that's kind of the reputation I'm building," Pierce said. "And I think I should build other stuff off that."

For Pierce, that other stuff involves carving out targets elsewhere on the field within the Colts' offense.

"Continue to run the routes, show them I can do other things," Pierce said, "because you know the deep ball's not always going to be there, so just got to get more into the short and intermediate game."

As long as Pierce continues winning downfield, though, the Colts' offense will have a certain score-from-anywhere dynamic to it.

4. Will Fries' injury was tough to see for one of the Colts' hardest workers – and best players.

Fries in the second half sustained a serious tibia injury, one which required him to have a procedure in Jacksonville before he could travel back to Indianapolis. Fries stayed overnight at a hospital in Jacksonville, Steichen said, and flew back to Indianapolis on Monday.

The Colts on Monday placed Fries on injured reserve.

"Just the ultimate competitor," Steichen said. "Feel for him. He's been doing everything right all year, playing his tail off, and it's just an unfortunate thing that happened to him. Wish him all the best in his recovery."

The fourth-year right guard was playing outstanding football – his 86.9 Pro Football Focus grade is highest among Colts offensive linemen and second-highest among guards – in his third season starting on the Colts' offensive line. Fries, a 2021 seventh-round pick who is set to become a free agent after this season, is known as one of the Colts' hardest-working players, and his mauling, finish-the-play physicality helped set a tone up front.

"He has come such a far way since he got here just all by hard work and determination and consistency every single day giving everything he has to this organization, everything he has to all of us," left guard Quenton Nelson said. "We're certainly going to miss him just the player he is and his style of play on the field."

The entire Colts' sideline converged around Fries as he was tended to by trainers on the field at EverBank Stadium. As he was lifted on to a cart, just about every single teammate came over to say something to him or tap him on his chest. Fries held his fist in the air as he was carted off the field.

"It just says that the whole team respects him and appreciates him and what he gives every single day and the way he goes out and fights and performs on Sundays," Nelson said. "I truly admire everything about him. It's very sad."

With Fries out, 2024 undrafted free agent Dalton Tucker stepped in at right guard and played well – he allowed one pressure on 20 pass blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus, and earned a 78.4 PFF pass block grade after entering the game.

5. The AFC standings are all over the place – and everything is still ahead of the 2024 Colts.

As disheartening it was to lose on the road to the Jaguars for the 10th consecutive time, the Colts are still in a jumbled group of five two-win teams: The Los Angeles Chargers (2-2), New York Jets (2-3), Las Vegas Raiders (2-3) and Miami Dolphins (2-3) are the others. Four other teams are 3-2 – the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos – and with a dozen games left to play, plenty can still happen in the AFC.

The Colts will face an uphill challenge to catch the division-leading 4-1 Houston Texans, who already have a road win over the Colts and are 2-0 in the AFC South (the Colts are 0-2). If you're looking for a little optimism, though, we'll leave you with this: