INDIANAPOLIS — Spencer Shrader stood at the far hash with the game on the line and attempted the longest kick of his NFL career. The Colts trailed by one, had no timeouts remaining, and the Lucas Oil Stadium crowd understood exactly what was at stake.
The 60-yard attempt sailed wide right.
Then came the flag.
A leverage penalty on Denver gave Indianapolis an untimed down from 13 yards closer. Shrader lined up for a 45-yard attempt, and this time the ball cleared the crossbar. The Colts won 29-28 in a finish that could not have been scripted more cruelly for Denver—or more generously for Indianapolis.
The Colts are 2-0 for the first time since 2009.
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A lot of what put Indianapolis in position to need a kicker in the first place runs through Daniel Jones, who has turned a nine-month Achilles rehabilitation into one of the more compelling quarterback stories of this NFL season. Jones went 23-for-34 for 316 passing yards on Sunday, threw a touchdown, and scored another on a quarterback sneak that gave the Colts a brief lead they ultimately could not protect through three quarters. Indianapolis signed him to a two-year, $88 million contract in March, trusting that the player who was dismantling secondaries before a December practice-field injury could do it again.
Through two weeks, that trust looks defensible. Jones has accumulated 588 passing yards and five total touchdowns, placing him second among AFC quarterbacks only to Lamar Jackson in yards through air. His 85.0 PFF grade through two games does not read like a quarterback still finding his legs after major surgery.
Jonathan Taylor gave the offense its floor, as he has for years in Indianapolis. He carried 22 times for 165 yards and turned a checkdown on second-and-seven into a 43-yard gain that bent Denver’s defensive alignment for much of the second half. Taylor under Jones is what lets the Colts play ahead of the chains, and what gives the offense a reset option when the passing game stalls.
The moment that handed Shrader his first attempt at the 60-yarder was Cam Bynum’s fourth-quarter interception. Bynum read Bo Nix on a third-down crossing route and stepped into the throwing lane, giving Indianapolis field position with just enough time to push into range. That Shrader then missed from 60 yards is the uncomfortable footnote to what was otherwise a composed special-teams performance. He was five-for-five before that attempt, including a 52-yarder in the second half.
Shane Steichen sent him out for the 60-yarder knowing the odds. Shrader’s range had looked sharper through the preseason, and there was an argument for trusting it. The argument fell apart when the ball went wide, and the game appeared finished. Then Denver’s eight penalties for the afternoon produced one more.
The Broncos’ fourth-quarter sequence against Indianapolis should concern Sean Payton. Denver ran three consecutive possessions without scoring: a three-and-out, the Bynum interception, and the leverage penalty that erased what should have been the game’s final play. They out-gained the Colts on the afternoon. They led late. They still lost.
Nix was not responsible for most of that. He moved the ball efficiently, avoided the kind of catastrophic decisions that had defined some of his rougher outings in 2025, and generally gave Denver’s offense enough to work with. What he could not find was the play when the game most demanded it. His late-third-down throw into Bynum’s hands was the clearest example of a quarterback pressing in a moment that called for patience.
The NFL’s Week 2 is sorting the conference’s early contenders from its pretenders. Indianapolis has survived two finishes that could have gone the other way, won both, and sits atop the AFC South through September. The first week of the season already reminded every team how fast circumstances shift. Shrader’s reprieve on Sunday is the kind of second chance that rarely arrives at all.
The durability question stays open. Jones performed behind a clean pocket against a Denver front that generated limited pressure. The Colts will face better fronts, and what they do not yet know is whether the Achilles held fully or whether the real test arrives later in the schedule. Two games in, the sample is too thin to answer that. What is not thin is the record, or the way this offense has moved the ball when it needed to.
Shrader was perfect on the day. He was also a penalty away from being the reason Indianapolis lost. Both things are true, and in this league, that margin is what most games come down to.
