Indianapolis, IN
Daniel Jones, Colts just provided plenty of fuel for their doubters — how will they respond?
PITTSBURGH — All Braden Smith could do was watch. The mistake was made. The damage was done. The carnage laid before him.
Daniel Jones was on the ground, the ball was gone, and Smith was partly — if not mostly — to blame. The Indianapolis Colts’ starting right tackle had been lined up against Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end T.J. Watt, one of the best pass rushers of his generation. He showed why in the second quarter on Sunday, when he dipped under Smith’s arm, pulled Jones to the ground and snatched the ball away from him, too.
“I have to look at it a little bit more on the film,” Smith said of the sack he gave up in Indy’s 27-20 loss. “But I needed to get a little bit more depth. Gave a little bit of a short edge (to Watt), and you can’t do that. Obviously, he made a play, and that’s what he does.”
After the turnover, Watt popped to his feet and pounded his chest. Thousands of Steelers fans waved their signature Terrible Towels in approval, a fitting gesture amid the Colts’ terrible, turnover-filled day. Indianapolis’ loss snapped a four-game winning streak, and it gave fuel to all the pundits who believe everything that came in the season’s first eight weeks was a mirage.
“It’s the NFL, sometimes these things happen,” said running back Jonathan Taylor, who was held to a season-low 45 yards on 14 carries. “But the great teams find a way to figure out how to overcome this.”
The doubters, though, have all they need at the moment. They’ll point to the Colts’ six turnovers — their most in a game since Peyton Manning threw six interceptions in a loss to the then-San Diego Chargers in 2007. Great teams don’t do that.
They’ll point to Jones committing a career-high five turnovers, bringing back memories of the jittery quarterback the New York Giants jettisoned. MVP candidates don’t look like that (granted, that Manning guy turned out to be pretty good).
They’ll even point to the Colts’ schedule. Five of their seven wins this year have come against teams with losing records. Real contenders don’t just beat up on the bottom dwellers.
“Losing makes you better in the long run as long as you f—ing learn from it,” star left guard and team captain Quenton Nelson said. “And that’s what we’re gonna do. I think our preparation has been really good throughout the whole entire year, and there’s nothing I would change that we did during the week. The game plan is good and everything (else). We just gotta go out there and execute better.”
Nelson has plenty of reason to believe Indianapolis will rebound, regardless of how anyone on the outside feels, because flukes usually don’t keep popping up for this long. Entering Sunday, the Colts offense was operating at a historic level. Their 3.46 points per drive was the second-most by a team this century through its first eight games (behind only the Tom Brady- and Randy Moss-led Patriots in 2007).
Asked if Sunday’s loss changed his opinion of his team, and particularly its offense, wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. dismissed the notion.
“Winning is tough. You come to a place like this, with a hostile environment, versus a tough team, I mean, it’s really tough to win 17 (games),” said Pittman, who tied fellow receiver Alec Pierce for the team high with 115 receiving yards. “And honestly, I think that the adversity is good. I wouldn’t want to go into the postseason 17-0. There’s only been one team (the 1972 Miami Dolphins) that’s actually done that and won.”
A perfect season has been off the table ever since Indianapolis’ first loss, against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4. But if there is a lesson to be gleaned from the team’s second defeat, it’s the same one every team in the NFL already knows: Turnovers can uplift you or they can bury you, and on Sunday the Colts threw a lot of dirt on themselves.
“(If) we don’t turn the ball over, I think we’ll be moving the ball up and down the field and scoring a lot of points again,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said of his team’s performance. “I got a ton of faith in our offense and our guys, for sure.”
For what it’s worth, Indianapolis totaled 368 yards of offense, 143 more than Pittsburgh, but its six turnovers — the most of any team in a single game this season — were too much to withstand. Wide receiver Josh Downs coughed up the first on a muffed punt in the first quarter. The ball bounced off the Acrisure Stadium turf and hit him in the chest as he tried to get out of the way, and cornerback Brandin Echols recovered it to put Pittsburgh at Indianapolis’ 11-yard line. The Colts’ defense forced a turnover on downs to mitigate the damage, but that trend wouldn’t hold up.
The Steelers scored touchdowns on the Colts’ next three turnovers, with Jones at the center of it all. The veteran QB finished 31-of-50 passing for 342 yards and one touchdown, plus another 1-yard rushing TD on the Colts’ first drive. But he also threw three interceptions and lost a pair of fumbles on strip-sacks. The first interception was arguably the worst of the bunch, as Jones failed to diagnosis the coverage and threw it straight to linebacker Payton Wilson.
That was one of Jones’ worst passes of the season, especially considering he’d thrown only three interceptions though his first eight games, but it’s worth acknowledging how often he was under siege. Jones was pressured a season-high 18 times, completing just six of his 13 passes for 88 yards and two picks when under those circumstances, per Next Gen Stats. He was also sacked five times — he was sacked only nine times through his first eight games.
“Obviously, that’s on me. I gotta protect the ball better and make sure we’re giving ourselves a chance,” Jones said. “I thought we did some good things at times, but just turnovers and some of those things, I gotta clean up.”
The Colts are still 7-2, but the narratives are coming, about a quarterback whose troubling past isn’t too far behind him; a team that hasn’t won the AFC South since 2014; and a franchise trying to return to “the upper quartile of winners,” as former Colts owner Jim Irsay once said.
The only way to extinguish the doubt is to respond. Indianapolis’ next opportunity will be in Berlin against the Falcons. On Sunday, Atlanta lost by a point to the Patriots, who are tied with the Colts for the best record in the AFC.
“(We’ll) come back to work a little pissed off,” Nelson said. “And like I said, losing is a part of life, and it makes you better as long as you learn from it.”
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Checkout time came early Tuesday night for Drake Edwards at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Edwards drove from the fourth starting spot to the lead on lap 7 and never trailed thereafter to win the 30-lap Stoops Star Spangled Showdown feature in his No. 40D Chase McDermand Racing/GR8 Company – Rexroad Racing/Spike/Speedway Toyota machine.
It was the second career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory for Edwards, from Peoria, Arizona.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Edwards said. “Very cool to be standing here. I knew there was a shot coming to the smaller tracks, but I felt pretty solid all night long. So, I think it’s really cool.”
Kevin Thomas Jr. finished a distant second in the No. 14 4 Kings Racing car on the 1/5-mile dirt oval, followed by pole sitter Gavin Miller in the No. 97 Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports entry. Zach Wigal was fourth in the No. 1 Pat O’Dell car, with BC39 rookie Jake Swanson rounding out the top five in the No. 14K 4 Kings Racing entry.
The 30-lap feature was the climax of the opening night of the two-night BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors, which will culminate in a 39-lap feature paying $20,039 to win Wednesday night on the track inside turn three of the storied IMS asphalt oval.
There were only two suspenseful moments for Edwards, 23, the 2024 USAC Western States Midget Rookie of the Year.
The first came on lap six when Edwards, charging toward the front, drove into the rear of teammate Briggs Danner in the No. 40x Chase McDermand Racing car in a duel for second place behind Miller. Edwards continued, but Danner spun and triggered a caution period.
“First and foremost, I want to apologize to Briggs,” Edwards said.
On the lap-seven restart, Edwards drove under Miller in turns three and four to take a lead he never surrendered despite multiple caution periods.
Edwards stretched the lead to 4.2 seconds over Thomas – a huge gap on a short track – by lap 22 as he could place his car on any spot of the dirt oval and find speed almost at will.
“I was just watching him up there,” Thomas said of Edwards. “Honestly, I was enjoying the show. I know he’s pretty talented, but I was like, ‘There ain’t no way he makes 30 laps without a crash.’ It’s pretty remarkable, and they had a great race car. He did a phenomenal job.”
Leading by approximately four seconds, Edwards rocketed around thick lapped traffic on the high line of the oval in the last 10 laps. But Thomas’ prediction of possible calamity for Edwards almost came true with three laps to go in the second dramatic moment on his drive to victory lane.
Edwards approached a lapped car that changed lines in turn three and four, and he had to slow quickly to avoid a collision. But Edwards safely avoided that near-miss and cruised to the victory in a car owned by McDermand, who picked up his only career USAC National Midget win during a 2024 BC39 preliminary feature, but cruelly lost a BC39 championship night victory with less than two laps remaining that same weekend when his car got hung up in ruts in turn four while leading.
“I didn’t know where to go half the time,” Edwards said. “But luckily, we made it through there pretty good, and I felt like I got through them all right.”
Edwards took over the lead from Miller with a turn three slider on lap seven, and it was all Edwards from there as he led the final 24 circuits of the 30-lap feature to earn the K & N Filters Clean Air award.
It’s been quite some time since you could last call Jake Swanson a Rookie. But tonight, in his first career BC39 appearance, he raced to a superb fifth-place result.
USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship, The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana, June 30, 2026
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#14 4 Kings) (3), 2. Drake Edwards (#40D McDermand) (6), 3. Ethan Mitchell (#19m Bundy Built) (1), 4. Kaylee Bryson (#11 Abacus) (5), 5. Alex Midkiff (#05 Midkiff) (4), 6. Joel Myers Jr. (#19H Hayward) (7), 7. Adam Taylor (#7T ATM) (2). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (1), 2. Justin Grant (#87 CBI) (6), 3. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood) (7), 4. Logan Julien (#3N O’Dell) (4), 5. Alex Sewell (#32A Tessier) (5), 6. Jake Robinson (#5u Trifecta) (2), 7. Devon Dobie (#23 Dobie) (3), 8. Austin Wood (#27 Horn) (8).
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kale Drake (#4 RMS) (2), 2. Gavin Miller (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (8), 3. Brecken Reese (#20Q Reese) (1), 4. Drew Sherman (#19 Reinbold-Underwood) (3), 5. Frank Flud (#81F Rosenboom) (5), 6. Jeffrey Abbey (#8B Miller) (6), 7. Cameron Hagin (#33 RayPro) (4), 8. Jason Tessier (#32J Tessier) (7). 1:42.351
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Bradley Cox (#45 Mason) (3), 2. Briggs Danner (#40x McDermand) (7), 3. Wesley Smith (#5p Rossi-Petty) (1), 4. Adyn Schmidt (#19x Cox) (5), 5. Gunnar Setser (#43 Arnold) (8), 6. Karter Sarff (#7u Trifecta) (4), 7. Brandon Carr (#98K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (6), 8. Matt Lux (#5L Lunsford-Lux) (2). 1:43.029
K1 RACEGEAR FIFTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Steven Snyder Jr. (#89 CBI) (2), 2. Jake Swanson (#14K 4 Kings) (5), 3. J.J. Yeley (#3J Rossi-Petty) (3), 4. Colton Robinson (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (6), 5. Jonathan Beason (#36 Rosenboom) (8), 6. Josh Hodge (#35 Hodge) (7), 7. Tyler Watkins (#7w Watkins) (1), 8. Mack Leopard (#40L McDermand) (4). 1:44.058
TJ FORGED SIXTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (1), 2. Ricky Thornton Jr. (#1R Rossi-Petty) (8), 3. Kade Taylor (#T21 Mounce-Stout) (2), 4. Daison Pursley (#86 CBI) (6), 5. Cody Weisensel (#20w Burrington) (7), 6. Eric Heydenreich (#32 OMR-Rase) (5), 7. Christian Miller (#8XL Miller) (4), 8. Robert Carson (#99K Carson) (3).
K & N FILTERS SEVENTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (#63 Dooling/Curb-Agajanian) (2), 2. Jakeb Boxell (#54 4 Kings) (3), 3. Kyle Cummins (#3G Styres) (6), 4. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus) (8), 5. Rylan Gray (#22H Gray) (7), 6. Riley Kreisel (#19K Cox) (5), 7. Cooper Miller (#8L Miller) (4), 8. Kyle Jones (#7TX Engler) (1). 1:44.150
INDY POWERSPORTS EIGHTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Peck (#3p Rossi-Petty) (2), 2. Zach Wigal (#1 O’Dell) (6), 3. Zach Daum (#5D Taylor) (5), 4. Wout Hoffmans (#14J Rosenboom) (3), 5. Dodge Carlbert (#1m Montgomery) (4), 6. Cord Kisthardt (#21K Kisthardt) (7), 7. Chris Hartman (#35s Hodge) (1). 1:46.835
C MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semis, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brandon Carr (1), 2. Cooper Miller (4), 3. Mack Leopard (9), 4. Kyle Jones (11), 5. Adam Taylor (5), 6. Cameron Hagin (2), 7. Christian Miller (3), 8. Tyler Watkins (7), 9. Jason Tessier (6), 10. Chris Hartman (8), 11. Matt Lux (10), 12 Austin Wood (12). 2:10.762
FIRST FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. J.J. Yeley (5), 2. Kyle Cummins (1), 3. Gunnar Setser (4), 4. Kaylee Bryson (6), 5. Drew Sherman (10), 6. Colton Robinson (3), 7. Karter Sarff (16), 8. Brandon Carr (17), 9. Wesley Smith (8), 10. Alex Sewell (11), 11. Joel Myers Jr. (13), 12. Alex Midkiff (12), 13. Mack Leopard (18), 14. Rylan Gray (9), 15. Ethan Mitchell (7), 16. Eric Heydenreich (15), 17. Cord Kisthardt (14), 18. Jakeb Boxell (2).
SECOND FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Zach Daum (2), 2. Jonathan Beason (4), 3. Logan Seavey (1), 4. Brecken Reese (7), 5. Daison Pursley (3), 6. Wout Hoffmans (10), 7. Adyn Schmidt (6), 8. Frank Flud (11), 9. Riley Kreisel (15), 10. Kyle Jones (18), 11. Cody Weisensel (8), 12. Logan Julien (9), 13. Dodge Carlbert (12), 14. Kade Taylor (5), 15. Cooper Miller (17), 16. Jeffrey Abbey (14), 17. Josh Hodge (13), 18. Jake Robinson (16).
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Drake Edwards (4), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 3. Gavin Miller (1), 4. Zach Wigal (6), 5. Jake Swanson (9), 6. Justin Peck (14), 7. Hayden Reinbold (10), 8. Cannon McIntosh (16), 9. Zach Daum (18), 10. Jacob Denney (15), 11. Gunnar Setser (21), 12. Justin Grant (5), 13. Kale Drake (11), 14. Briggs Danner (3), 15. Jonathan Beason (20), 16. Steven Snyder Jr. (12), 17. Kaylee Bryson (23), 18. Colton Robinson (26-P), 19. J.J. Yeley (17), 20. Brecken Reese (24), 21. Cale Coons (13), 22. Jakeb Boxell (25-P), 23. Bradley Cox (8), 24. Ricky Thornton Jr. (2), 25. Logan Seavey (22), 26. Kyle Cummins (19).
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — If it’s hot and uncomfortable for us, it is for them, too. Keeping your pets cool and safe amid the Indiana heatwave is just as important as keeping ourselves cool.
With dangerous heat settling over much of the region, veterinarians are urging pet owners to take extra precautions to prevent heat-related illness in animals. Experts recommend keeping pets in shaded, well-ventilated areas with constant access to cool, fresh water and limiting exercise during peak heat, typically between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Hot pavement can burn paw pads; owners are advised to test surfaces with a hand for several seconds and opt for grass, booties, or early morning and late evening walks. Indoors, air conditioning, fans, and cooling mats can help.
Sometimes, it can be hard for pets to get the appropriate amount of water that they need to stay hydrated. Adding water to meals or offering pet-safe frozen treats may support hydration.
For outdoor setups, veterinarians recommend movable shade, kiddie pools with shallow water, misting hoses, and avoiding restrictive muzzles that impede panting. Groomers caution against shaving double-coated breeds to the skin; regular brushing improves airflow without removing natural insulation.
Pets should never be left in parked cars, where temperatures can become deadly within minutes, even with windows cracked.
With a little planning, your best friend can keep wagging through the worst of the heat.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Fever head coach Stephanie White said Fever star guard Caitlin Clark will not practice on Tuesday, adding that Clark will be doing an individual workout.
Clark (back) did not play in the Fever’s game on Saturday against the Los Angeles Sparks.
“We want her to be healthy, physically, mentally and emotionally, all the things,” White said on Friday ahead of the game against the Sparks. “I think it’s important to remember, again, when you’ve gone through injury and the traumatic aspect of injury, especially that she had last year, it’s ups and downs, physically, mentally, emotionally, and making sure that she’s 100% ready to go is the most important thing. Her taking care of that is priority for us.”
Clark left the Fever’s game against the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday in the third quarter and did not return.
Clark has missed two games this season, both due to a back injury. The first game she missed was on May 20 against the Portland Fire.
Clark is averaging 21.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and and 8.2 assists per game this season.
The Fever have a long break before their next game, when they travel to Las Vegas to play the Aces on Sunday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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