Who won the Jets vs Colts game: Thursday Night Football | Week 9

The Indianapolis Colts gave their most convincing performance of the season on a night where they needed it most. The run game paved the way for the Colts’ 45-30 win over the New York Jets, putting Indy in the playoff mix to start the second half of the regular season.

Big bounce back game for Indy

It was a tough task to ask Indianapolis to respond after a heartbreaking loss to the Tennessee Titans last week. It was an even tougher task when you consider the Colts had to bounce back from that physically and emotionally draining loss on a short week.

Carson Wentz and the Colts showed they put the Titans game in the rear view from their very first offensive possession. An 88 yard drive that was capped off by Nyheim Hines’ 34 yard touchdown run to get the scoring started in Indy.

That was just the tip of the rushing iceberg for the Colts, who would go on to run for a league high 260 yards.

It was a perfect start to the Colts night. Wentz was flawless in the first four possessions of the game. All four of those possession ended in touchdowns as Indianapolis went to the halftime break up 28-10. Wentz was on target on all but three passes through the first two quarters, and the Colts didn’t commit a penalty in the first half.. Needless to say, they had moved on from the Titans heartbreaker.

The Jets looked good early on. Mike White, who took over for Zach Wilson last week in New York’s 34-31 win over Cincinnati, got off to a good start. He was 7/11 for 95 yards and a touchdown early in the first quarter, but went to the bench after the opening touchdown for the Jets and never returned. It wasn’t clear at first what the injury was, or when he suffered it but footage showed White grabbing his throwing arm.

Too little to late for Jets and Johnson's comeback bid

The back-up to the back-up Josh Johnson came in for New York, but took a while to get warmed up. By the end of the game he had 317 yards and three touchdowns, and almost led what would have been a miraculous comeback charge with the Jets down 42-16. While the Colts were never made to sweat their second half advantage, Johnson did make it interesting.

The third string QB led three straight late touchdown drives and had the Jets at the IND 7 yard line with a minute to go before his pass was batted in the air and intercepted to put the game on ice.

The Colts move to 4-5 on the season and are showing themselves to be real contenders for a playoff spot in the AFC. The Jets focus may not be intrinsically on this season, but for the last two weeks the New York offense has looked miles ahead of what they have looked like with rookie quarterback Zach Wilson under center. He is the future no doubt, but head coach Robert Saleh may have a big decision to make once his rookie quarterback is healthy.