Colts vs Commanders: Indianapolis wins 30-13 in London despite being outgained 317 yards to 257

The Indianapolis Colts beat the Washington Commanders 30-13 on Sunday morning at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and "Colts vs Commanders" is the most-searched game phrase in the US today. Indianapolis moves to 2-2 and Washington falls to 1-3, according to the ESPN box score. The announced crowd was 60,907.

Outgained, and still won by 17

The Commanders gained more yards, 317 to 257, and averaged 5.2 yards a play against 3.9. On the stat sheet that is the better offense. The score says otherwise, and the reasons are all in the situational numbers:

Indianapolis made every one of its three red zone trips count, and Washington got inside the 20 twice without scoring a touchdown. The Commanders also failed on three of their four fourth-down tries. Their only touchdown came from outside the red zone, a 47-yard pass from Athan Kaliakmanis to Treylon Burks. The rest of their points were two Drew Stevens field goals, from 31 and 29 yards, in the first quarter.

How the Colts scored

Jonathan Taylor carried 20 times for 95 yards and two 5-yard touchdowns. Daniel Jones added a 4-yard rushing touchdown and Spencer Shrader kicked field goals from 48, 52 and 44 yards. That is 21 points from three touchdowns and nine from three field goals.

It was not a passing day for Indianapolis. Jones completed 19 of 34 passes for 143 yards with no touchdown and one interception, and the team's net passing was 129 yards after two sacks. Jones also lost a fumble, so the Colts gave the ball away twice to Washington's once and still won by 17.

Indianapolis trailed 6-0 after the first quarter, led 10-6 at halftime and 20-13 after three, by quarter scores of 0, 10, 10 and 10 against Washington's 6, 0, 7 and 0.

Washington's quarterbacks

Kaliakmanis completed 15 of 33 for 186 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Marcus Mariota also played, going 3 of 4 for 46 yards and running once for 35 yards. The box score does not say why the quarterbacks were split, and we are not guessing at it. Dyami Brown led Washington's receivers with three catches for 65 yards.

What it changes

For Indianapolis the result is a .500 record with a win that came from efficiency rather than volume, which is a harder thing to repeat than a big yardage day. For Washington, ten penalties for 84 yards and a 2-for-15 third-down day are the kind of numbers that give away games the yardage says it should have won. Both teams now return to domestic schedules; see our NFL schedule for what each plays next and live NFL scores for the rest of Sunday's slate.

Sources: ESPN box score, team statistics and scoring summary, read October 4, 2026. Red zone and third-down figures are as listed by ESPN.