Despite still working through two ankle sprains, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Carson Wentz had his best performance en route to the team’s first win of the season in Week 4 against the Miami Dolphins.

Wentz wound up completing 24-of-32 passes (75%) for 228 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a season-high 115.1 passer rating. It was a strong outing against a struggling Dolphins defense.

What head coach Frank Reich was most impressed by was Wentz’s decision-making throughout the game.

“I think this week was his best yet. I thought he was right on the money all day. When I watched the film back a couple times, he just had the right instinct on when to get it downfield, when to check it down,” Reich told reporters Monday.

The Colts had their most complete game of the season in the 27-17 win at Hard Rock Stadium. Wentz was a solid game manager with two bum ankles while running back Jonathan Taylor broke out for 103 rushing yards and his first touchdown of the season.

Defensively, the Colts got a lot of help from Jacoby Brissett, who looked like his typical conservative self. Defensive end Kemoko Turay led the way with two sacks to give the Colts some life from the edge rush.

While Reich wants to see chunk plays as much as anyone, there were some vital decisions in the game where Wentz put them in favorable positions to secure a first down.

“What we talked about in our meeting, in our quarterback meeting was he obviously made some nice chunk plays down the field, but there were three, four, five plays that he made that were three or four or five or six-yard gains underneath that are important plays that keep us out of third-and-long,” Reich said. “He’s getting the ball out of his hand, not trying to extend it, just taking that short stuff but then still making chunk plays. That’s the right mix that we’re looking for.”

This formula has been proven to work against bad teams like the Dolphins. What still remains to be seen is whether the Colts can make this work against teams with much better competition and quarterback play. That will be put to test again in Week 5 when the Colts visit the Baltimore Ravens.

Regardless, this was an encouraging outing from Wentz to show that he’s making improvements as a decision-maker. It still has yet to be determined what the ceiling looks like, though, given all the surrounding factors.

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