Jonathan Taylor rushed for two touchdowns as the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Washington Commanders 30-13 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday, October 4, 2026, in the Week 4 game of the NFL’s expanded international calendar, according to match reporting.
Washington’s afternoon bent on its second possession, when Marcus Mariota — starting in place of the unavailable Jayden Daniels, who was dealing with an elbow injury — suffered a knee injury on a sack and did not build on an early 6-0 lead. Rookie seventh-round selection Athan Kaliakmanis took over at quarterback for the Commanders and finished 15 of 33 for 186 yards with one touchdown and one interception, finding Treylon Burks for a 47-yard score in the third quarter that briefly cut the deficit to 17-13.
Indianapolis overcame a messy first half in which Daniel Jones committed two turnovers. Jones finished 19 of 34 for 143 yards without a touchdown pass, intercepted once, and added a rushing score. The Colts’ official account highlighted how an unnecessary-roughness penalty against Washington extended the drive that produced Taylor’s first five-yard touchdown. Spencer Shrader’s field goal sent Indianapolis in 10-6 ahead at half-time, and a Jaylon Carlies interception early in the third quarter was converted into Taylor’s second five-yard touchdown run. Both of Taylor’s scores covered five yards; Shrader added kicks from 52 and 44 yards as the Colts scored ten points in each of the final three quarters to close out a 30-13 win, moving Indianapolis to 2-2 while Washington fell to 1-3.
The London staging matters beyond the standings. The game opened a three-week residency for the league in the capital — Colts-Commanders at Tottenham, Eagles-Jaguars back at Tottenham on October 11, and Texans-Jaguars at Wembley on October 18 — in a nine-game international season that also visits Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. A league once content with a London toehold now schedules like a touring circuit, and a routine Week 4 fixture between two .500-ish teams becomes, by postcode alone, a market event.
For Washington, the cost is measured at quarterback, where a season’s depth chart was compressed into an afternoon: starter injured before the trip, replacement injured during it, rookie finishing it. For Indianapolis, the lesson travels home — a win built on defence, field position and its running back, in a stadium where the crowd came for the occasion and stayed for a competent, professional performance. London got its show. The Colts got to 2-2. The Commanders got the flight home and the treatment room, which in the NFL’s international era are now the same itinerary.
Related reading:
