The Indianapolis Colts launched the NFL’s 19th season in London with a statement on Sunday, as running back Jonathan Taylor scored twice to drive a 30-13 victory over the Washington Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The win, sealed in front of a raucous north London crowd on Sunday afternoon, lifted Indianapolis to 2-2 and kept genuine play-off ambitions alive after a stuttering start to the campaign. For Washington, a defensive performance full of menace was ultimately undone by a brutal afternoon of injuries at quarterback.
Washington’s fast start, then the injury curse strikes
The Commanders could hardly have begun better. Defensive tackle Odafe Oweh burst through the Colts line to flatten quarterback Daniel Jones, forcing a fumble that Washington recovered before Drew Stevens drilled a 31-yard field goal inside the opening exchanges.
But the visitors’ afternoon soon turned sour at the most important position on the field. Already without starting quarterback Jayden Daniels, who missed the trip with an elbow injury, Washington then lost back-up Marcus Mariota to a knee problem early in the contest after an encouraging start.
That left 23-year-old rookie third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis to make his professional debut on one of the biggest stages the sport offers outside the United States.
Taylor takes the game by the scruff of the neck
With Jones enduring a torrid time against a ferocious Washington front seven — the Colts passer finished 19 of 34 for 143 yards, with an interception and no touchdowns — Indianapolis turned to Taylor, and Taylor delivered.
The running back ground out 95 yards and found the end zone either side of half-time, his scores sandwiching a booming 48-yard Spencer Shrader field goal that sent the Colts into the interval 17-6 ahead and firmly in control.
Kaliakmanis, to his credit, refused to go quietly. An interception at the start of the second half gifted Taylor his second touchdown, but the rookie answered with the throw of the afternoon: spotting Treylon Burks racing down the left sideline, he floated a perfect 47-yard pass into his receiver’s stride for a touchdown that cut the gap to 17-13 and sent the travelling support into delirium.
For a few heart-stopping seconds it looked as though the youngster might author one of the great debut stories in London Games history, when Antonio Williams sprinted 80 yards for another score — only for an illegal shift penalty to wipe it out, to the fury of the burgundy-and-gold end.
Indianapolis steadied from there. Another Shrader field goal stretched the cushion before two punishing 12-yard Taylor runs carried the Colts to the goalline early in the final quarter, where a faked handoff allowed Jones to tuck the ball and plunge in himself — a small personal redemption after a difficult afternoon throwing it.
What the result means
At 2-2, the Colts head home with their season very much alive. After the rockiest of starts, a win on foreign soil — built on the ground game and a defence that did enough — keeps them firmly in the play-off conversation.
Washington, meanwhile, will count the cost of a trip that exposed how thin their margin for error has become. A defence that had toppled the Super Bowl champions a week earlier did its job again in spells, but no unit can survive that kind of misfortune at quarterback in a single afternoon. The Commanders’ season now hinges on how quickly Daniels can return.
London’s NFL love affair rolls on
Sunday’s game was the first of three October fixtures that make up this year’s London series, and the capital is embracing them as only it can. The NFL’s official pop-up shop on Oxford Street, open until 19 October, has been doing brisk business with supporters stocking up on colours ahead of the games.
The league’s relationship with London stretches back to 2007, when Wembley staged the first regular-season game ever played outside North America. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019, was designed from the outset with American football in mind — a retractable grass pitch and purpose-built NFL facilities have made it the de facto home of the London games, and Sunday’s atmosphere showed why.
There is plenty more to come: the Philadelphia Eagles face the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham on Sunday 11 October, before the series moves to Wembley for the Houston Texans against the Jaguars on 18 October.
Heading to a game?
Fans bound for the remaining fixtures can reach Tottenham Hotspur Stadium via White Hart Lane and Seven Sisters stations, while Wembley is served by Wembley Park. Gamedays at both grounds have long come with fan zones and tailgate-style gatherings, so arriving early is rarely a chore — and the Oxford Street store gives travelling supporters somewhere central to pick up their colours before kick-off.
It was not the only sporting story in the capital this weekend — Leyton Orient’s tribute to staff member Lucy Freeman reminded everyone of football’s power to bring a community together.
But on Sunday afternoon in N17, the story belonged to Jonathan Taylor and the Colts: two touchdowns, one statement win, and a London crowd that got exactly the show it came for.
