INDIANAPOLIS -- This was supposed to be a redemption game for the Indianapolis Colts after an embarrassing home loss the week before. The kind of redemption where the outcome against the Jacksonville Jaguars would pretty much be decided in the first half because quarterback Andrew Luck had his way and the defense harassed rookie quarterback Blake Bortles into a long day.

The Colts’ defense did its part by holding the Jaguars to 194 yards on Sunday, but the offense?

Not so much.

"Anytime you've got false starts and turnovers and penalties ... that does, I think, constitute sloppy,” Luck said after the Colts' 23-3 win. “Again, I think Jacksonville did a great job of forcing us into those mistakes, fumbles and all that. But, yeah, you could say sloppy."

The highlight for the Colts -- outside of receiver T.Y. Hilton rewarding his newborn daughter with a touchdown -- was that Cincinnati beat Houston, inching the Colts closer to their second straight AFC South title. The victory coupled with the Texans’ loss gives Indianapolis a two-game lead over Houston with five games remaining.

“It’s in our control,” safety Mike Adams said. “We said that this game was going to be tough. Why? We were trying to get back on track and it’s a division game. A win is a win. I don’t know if there’s such thing as an ugly win, especially in this league.”

There may be no such thing as an ugly win because nobody will remember how the Colts got it in two weeks. But there’s certainly such a thing as an ugly performance that makes you wonder how seriously you can take the Colts.

And ugly is exactly how the Colts' offense played in the first 30 minutes of the game.

The offensive line looked like the unit from Luck’s first two seasons. Luck didn’t have any time to throw the ball because he was trying to avoid the rush. The Jaguars sacked Luck five times and the Colts scored only six points, gaining 148 yards in the first half.

Things were so bad that you forgot that the Colts entered the game with the NFL’s top-ranked offense and led the league in time of possession.

“Hard to get stuff going, that's a good defense, that's a good front four,” Luck said. “We had our share of some self-inflicted penalties and didn't do a good job taking care of the football, but a lot of those are because of what they did. A lot of credit goes to what they did on defense in stifling us early."

Left tackle Anthony Castonzo said the offensive line got tired of getting its “butts kicked up front,” and the unit took some pride and gave Luck the necessary protection he needed in the second half.

The Colts gained 241 yards, including 100 yards rushing, scored 17 points and didn't give up a sack in the final 30 minutes of the game. Luck’s streak of eight consecutive games with at least 300 yards passing came to an end, but not before he threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Hilton to help him fulfill a goal of giving his newborn daughter a touchdown.

The Colts are taking the win, but it’s not time to say they’ve fixed their problems, especially when they struggled at home against a Jacksonville team that’s now 1-10 on the season.

“You've got to do better,” coach Chuck Pagano said. “There's always something -- we're going to look at the tape, win or lose, there's always things to clean up. Great win, great team win. Still ahead in our division. We know the easiest way to get in the tournament is to win the division. That's our No. 1 goal. Somebody's going to get hot right about now. Every year, it seems like it's somebody new. Why can't we get hot and just keep getting better and better and better?

“We had a five-game win streak. There's no reason we can't do the same thing. But if we stick to the process, we do the little things and we prepare and we play well and we execute, then we can be that team, maybe.”