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Indianapolis Colts vs Jacksonville Jaguars recap: final score and what we learned (2026 Week 8)

NFL Audit · 2026 Week 8 · Game recap

The Jacksonville Jaguars didn't just beat the Indianapolis Colts, they flattened them, 42–7. For a Colts team that arrived needing proof it could find a way to score, this was the worst possible answer. For Jacksonville, it's a statement after a shootout loss in its previous game.

The result

Start with the scoreboard, then look at what's underneath it, because the box score tells a sharper story than the first-down count does. Jacksonville finished with 18 first downs and Indianapolis with 17, so the two teams were nearly even on moving the chains. Where they split was what each did with the yardage.

The Jaguars piled up 366 yards on 53 plays, 6.9 per play. The Colts managed 243 yards on 60 plays, just 4 per play. Indianapolis ran more snaps and got far less out of them. Jacksonville's passing game averaged 9.2 yards per pass for 183 yards, and its ground game added another 183 at 5.5 per carry on 33 attempts. The Colts' passing offense mustered 3.9 yards per pass for 134 yards, and the rushing attack finished with 109 yards on 26 attempts.

Then there's the turnover column. Indianapolis gave it away three times, two of them interceptions and one a lost fumble. Jacksonville gave it away once, also a lost fumble, and threw no picks. When one team is efficient and the other is sloppy, 42–7 is what you get.

How our preview held up

Our preview made no pick, but it did lean one way. It said everything pointed toward Jacksonville: the Jaguars scored more, allowed less and had the better recent form. It called them the team with the obvious way to win and the Colts the team that had to prove they had one. On direction, that held up.

On size, we were too polite. We warned that Sunday wasn't a formality, and we pointed to a Jaguars defense that had just given up 34 as a place the Colts might find room. That didn't happen. A Colts offense we described as stuck in the low teens managed 7, and it averaged 4 yards a play. We also worried that a Colts defense allowing 25.7 per game was in trouble against a Jaguars offense averaging 25.7. That worry was well founded, and Jacksonville went far past its season average.

The preview was right to treat Indianapolis' recent slide as the central story, and wrong to leave any hope that the Colts would turn it around here.

What it means

For Jacksonville, this answers the question left by the loss to Houston. One shootout defeat looked like a blip, and this performance supports that reading. Balanced production, with the same yardage through the air and on the ground, is the kind of profile that travels.

For Indianapolis, the concern has changed. Before, it was whether the slide was a rough patch or something more worrying. The slide is now longer, the offense produced 7 points, and the giveaways piled up. The Colts' defense was already allowing more than the offense scored, and this game did nothing to quiet that.

The honest read is that the Jaguars look like a team that knows what it is, and the Colts look like a team still searching. Nothing in this box score suggests the search ends quickly.

Read our pre-game preview: Indianapolis Colts vs Jacksonville Jaguars preview: team news, form and key matchups (2026 Week 8)

Final score

Team stats

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Data attribution: Stats for informational analysis only. Verify figures against official league sources.