The Indianapolis Colts are on the road, taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars in their Week 5 game on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST.

This week the Colts enter the game with their first winning streak of the young season. At two and two, the Colts have won back-to-back home games and will look to extend their streak to three. The Jaguars enter Week 5 having lost their first four games of the season, their head coach is on the hot seat and their “generational youngster,” a highly paid franchise quarterback, is completing just 53% of his passes this year.

If this game were played somewhere else, I would happily predict a Colts win, even if Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor missed the game due to injuries. But Indy hasn’t won in Jacksonville in 14 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 14 years ago, the Colts last beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

In 2020, the Frank Reich-led Colts went 11-5. This season the Jaguars had a record of 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 14 years, Colts vs. Jaguars has been an automatic win for the bad guys, regardless of the circumstances. So will this be the year Indy breaks the curse? After all, in previous years, when the Colts were far superior to their opponents, they lost the game. This year, Indy is missing its starting quarterback, running back and nearly half of its starting lineup on day one. So I suspect this might be as good a time as any to break the curse, but I just don’t see it.

Doug Pederson is training for his job and as I just said, 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 Day, the Colts’ loss to the Jaguars in Jacksonville feels like an annual NFL tradition, hands down the worst annual tradition there is. But tradition nonetheless.

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

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

Come on, Colts!