INDIANAPOLIS – Let’s marvel at the burst and balance of Indianapolis Colts rookie Marlon Mack, who kept outrunning 49ers defensive backs to the corner and turning upfield without (A) slowing down or (B) running out of bounds, which for most mortals is (C) impossible. Let’s appreciate the poise and patience and arm strength of quarterback Jacoby Brissett, whose on-the-run spiral hit T.Y. Hilton in stride nearly 60 yards away. Let’s bow to the Hall of Fame goatness, er, greatness of kicker Adam Vinatieri, whose 51-yard field goal beat San Francisco 26-23 in overtime on Sunday.

But let’s not ignore what else we saw Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Let’s not pretend the Colts “turned a corner.” Let’s not pretend they “showed grit.”

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The Colts collapsed, again. That’s what we saw. They won, and in the locker room that felt terrific – “You take a ‘W,’ doesn’t matter how ugly it is,” veteran running back Frank Gore said – but the Colts beat the 49ers for the same reason they beat Cleveland two weeks ago:

They were playing someone even worse than they are.

Just three NFL teams have made it this far without winning a single game, and the Colts have had the good fortune to have played two of them: the Browns (0-5) and 49ers (0-5). I’d tell you the Colts will win a third game this season, but I can’t; the New York Giants (0-5) aren’t on the schedule.

But again, let’s see the positive, if only for a moment. And the positive is this: The Colts did show several glimpses of individual greatness. When he wasn’t throwing the occasional WHAT IS THAT pass – including one toward tight end Brandon Williams in overtime that would have been intercepted by 49ers safety Jaquiski Tartt, had 49ers linebacker Ray-Ray Armstrong not intercepted it first – Brissett was magnificent.

Brissett is big, strong, quick and elusive, and on one play he showed it all: the 63-yarder to Hilton where Brissett left the pocket, looked downfield and hurled it – on the move – from one 20-yard line to the other one, where Hilton caught it in stride. Brissett (22 for 34 for 314 yards) throws the occasional interception straight out of middle school, but that was a pass unimaginable to some starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

And Hilton – when he wasn’t dropping a 50-yarder or being outfought on the goal line for another drop, and when he wasn’t committing two penalties, and when he wasn’t pounding his chest for every single thing he did right – was doing some amazing things in his own right. He’s nimble and fast and usually reliable, and he caught seven passes for 177 yards on Sunday.

Marlon Mack, the great training camp hope, finally showed it in a regular-season game. Unshackled by the shoulder injury that sidelined him earlier this season, Mack gained 91 yards on nine carries, including a 22-yard TD where he outran the defense to the edge and then turned upfield and stayed in bounds and it was just superhuman, as I was saying earlier.

That was in the third quarter. And then he damn near did it again in the fourth. It was third-and-15 from the 49ers’ 17 and the Colts were playing for the field goal, but Mack had other ideas: bouncing an inside handoff to the outside and racing up the sideline and diving for the pylon, his knee hitting just short of the end zone. Brissett scored two plays later and it was 23-9 with 9:56 left.

The Colts led the winless 49ers by two touchdowns with less than 10 minutes left, at home, and still needed overtime to win. Why?

Because the Colts have individual brilliance, and systemic incompetence.

Their schemes are terrible, on both sides of the ball. The Colts’ best offense on Sunday, as I’ve written a few times, was a piece of uncoachable magnificence. Brissett flees the pocket and makes something happen. Mack doesn’t hit the assigned hole because it’s not there, and finds his own hole somewhere else. Hilton sees a broken play and breaks downfield and pulls in a 46-yarder from Brissett.

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Otherwise, the offense is hopeless. Whatever offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski was calling, it worked only because the 49ers continually snuffed it out, forcing Brissett or Mack to improvise. And the defense? My word is defensive coordinator Ted Monachino in over his head. Or maybe he’s just handcuffed to use the defense favored by Pagano, who is completely in over his head. Give the guy Ray Lewis and Ed Reed in Baltimore, and he’s a genius. Give him anybody else here in Indianapolis, and he’s the architect of some of the worst defenses in the NFL, year after year after year.

Pagano hired and oversees this staff, he's unable to improve the team’s discipline – seven more penalties Sunday for 62 yards – and he has a penchant to make the most unimaginable mistake possible. Last year it was the fake punt, or something, by poor Griff Whalen. Earlier this year it was failing to challenge the spot on a touchdown by Marlon Mack.

And Sunday? Well, Sunday was the punt-return lateral that Quan Bray threw blindly – I hope – across the field, narrowly and I mean narrowly avoiding having the pass picked off and returned for a touchdown. Not sure if we’d have called that a muff or a pick-six or fourth-and-dumb, but former Marian receiver Krishawn Hogan made mute my moniker by grabbing the ball for a 14-yard loss.

That play was so ugly, Pagano was sheepish when I asked him about it afterward.

“It looked like it looked,” Pagano said.

Well what do you know? I’m hearing a euphemism, and maybe an epitaph someday, for this 2017 Colts football team:

It looked like it looked.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.