Colts' Duval Curse is Set for a Mid-Season Matchup

The official NFL schedule release for the 2026-27 regular season dropped last night, and now all 32 NFL teams have a better understanding of what to expect week in and week out.

The Indianapolis Colts have always expected to play a six-game slate against their three divisional opponents (two games each, one home and one away), but where on the schedule those games will take place was the last surprise.

But of the expected six-game slate, one game in particular sticks out as being a near-unachievable feat at this point. The annual trip to Duval County is one that everyone expects to lose. The trend that has been established almost feels like a curse of sorts, but the Colts must finally leave with a win if this regime under general manager Chris Ballard wants to remain in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Colts are set to travel to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars in Week 8, a November 1st matchup in the 1:00 PM slate.

This matchup has been chalked up as a guaranteed loss for Indianapolis, given their atrocious history playing at EverBank Stadium. The Duval Curse is no joking matter, as the Colts have failed to win in Jacksonville each of the past 11 matchups.

Or, if you refer to the Colts' schedule release video in collaboration with The Simpsons, Homer Simpson reminds us that it's been a grueling 4,252 days without a win in Jacksonville.

11/10 no notes. https://t.co/GAHyek95nI pic.twitter.com/7dgADqGLot
— Noah Compton (@nerlens_) May 14, 2026

Acknowledging this losing streak no doubt makes for a funny joke, but it also goes to show just how fateful the losses have become.

The last win for the Colts in Jacksonville came way back in 2014, aka Andrew Luck's third season in the NFL, a 44-17 dismantling of the glitter kitties. By extension, the Colts are winless against the Jaguars on their home turf throughout each of Chris Ballard's nine seasons as the team's general manager.

Of all the losses since then, none looms larger than the one at the end of the 2021-22 season.

The Colts had no chance of winning the division entering their Week 18 matchup in 2021, but they could clinch a Wild Card spot in the playoffs if they were to achieve just one thing: a win against the team with the worst record in the NFL, the 2-14 Jacksonville Jaguars.

Indianapolis may have had a true shot if they were hosting the Jaguars, but unfortunately for them, their season finale in question was to be played at EverBank Stadium. This would just be another footnote in the longstanding tradition of losing in Jacksonville, but this loss in particular served as an indictment or microcosm of what's gone wrong in the Chris Ballard era: complacency.

Fast forward half a decade, and Ballard and Co. are still around, except this time, winning is nonnegotiable. Last season, the Colts finally broke their Week 1 curse, so perhaps now they can break another one after proving to themselves that breaking curses is indeed possible.

This mid-season matchup with the Jaguars should feature a healthy starting quarterback battle between Daniel Jones and Trevor Lawrence, barring no setbacks or injuries before then. The Jaguars, under second-year head coach Liam Coen, are slowly but surely turning into a formidable foe, so the Colts will not likely have an easy matchup (on paper) like they did to close out the 2021-22 season.

Sign Up For the Colts Daily Digest - OnSI’s Indianapolis Colts Newsletter

Bold Predictions for Every Outcome of Colts' Crucial 2026 Campaign

Add us as a preferred source on Google