Colts put an ugly win on the board before the bye.

The Colts faced off against the Patriots in a less than thrilling game.

The Indianapolis Colts did just enough to beat the woeful Patriots in Germany Sunday morning. Most of the teams’ offensive firepower came in the game’s first quarter as the Patriots scored three on their first possession, and the Colts cashed in for seven. After that, it was mostly crickets as only six more points were scored the rest of the contest between both teams.

A win doesn’t have to look good. A win counts as a win at the end of the day just the same, whether it is captured in a blowout fashion, by one point, as an offense shoot-out, or a defensive struggle. It is a good thing that wins don’t have to be pretty because most of what happened on offense in Germany can be left on that continent. The promising run game that started off the game seemed to evaporate. Gardner Minshew sailed the ball over his receivers’ heads when he wasn’t dancing all around in the pocket and bouncing around the pressure. While the team wasn’t doomed by turnovers, they simply couldn’t do much to move the ball on the day.

On the flip side, the defense stepped up in big ways. Yes, they got gashed in the run game, but that is because that is all the Patriots could do. The passing game got so bad that Mac Jones was pulled on the team’s final drive. That doesn’t happen very often. The defense sacked Jones five times and came up with some pivotal interceptions.

With 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Patriots were putting together what could be the knock out drive. From the Colts 15, Jones threw an interception which killed their momentum. After the Colts punted the ball back, Jones was benched and Bailey Zappe came in to replace him for the game’s final two minutes. After some positive plays, Zappe was picked off as well which effectively ended the games.

The Colts won ugly, but they won. What would have been worse would be to sit through that game and have them lose. Now, the team sits at .500 heading into the bye. That is a good place to be when none of that was certain just a few weeks ago. This gives them positive mojo and time to heal up. There is still work to be done, but if we can get more ugly wins, I’ll take them.