So the Colts are tied for the lead in the division after Sunday, but it doesn’t feel like they should be after a 20-20 tie to the Houston Texans. With all of the right in the game towards the end, there was so much wrong as well overall.
A Tie?
With all of the good the Colts did in the second half, there was a missed kick away from potentially stealing a win back from the Texans. Entering the game as touchdowns favorites, the Colts found themselves down early. They rallied back to force OT, and looked good in that stretch. Overall, while there were some good, there was a lot of questions left for both sides of the ball
Offensive Struggles
The Colts had a terrible 4th and goal call to get no points, and the Texans got 3 out of it on the next drive. With no threat of a pass, and JT in the game, the Texans just sat on the run and destroyed the play in the backfield. I like the call if this leads to a trick play later on down the road, but for this purpose it just didn’t work at all.
Alec Pierce dropped a ball in the end zone that would have given the Colts a lead. Looking back now, that was 10 points the Colts left on the board in these two sequences. I’ll give Pierce a little slack since he is young, but that’s a ball that has to be caught. If he wants to get more time and become more effective in the offense, he is going to have to make those plays.
Too many dropped snaps and miscues lead to it being close too. This is a thing that should get cleaned up as the season goes on, but with Matt Ryan at the helm it should be doable.
Offensive Upsides
Pittman and JT showed a lot of promise. Taylor gobbled up yards all game and eventually broke through for the touchdown. He led the game in rushing with 31 rushes for 161 yards. Hopefully the carries go down a bit since that’s a lot of workload, but he looked really good.
As for Pittman, he finished with 9 receptions for 121 yards and a TD. He had some big catches that kept drives going. Pittman has the chance to have an All Pro season the way he looked in the game Sunday.
Little shoutout to TY Hilton on the celebration
Overall
The other receivers besides Pittman did good but needed a bit more There were a few too many drops. With Blankenship missing the 40+ yard field goal, it’s hard not to think about if there were just one more catch or so to give him some more cushion. Regardless, Hines and Allie-Cox were semi quiet but also effective in the game. As the season goes on, someone else in the receiving room will have to step up and become a solid option behind Taylor and Pittman. Will it be Pierce? Hines?
Defense
For the defense, they had a pretty solid game. It could’ve been a bit better, but holding a team under 20 is pretty good. If they do that all season, the colts should be able to score over 20 to make up for it. In the rushing game, the Colts did a great job of holding the rushing attack to nothing really at all. When it came to the passing, they had some miscues and blow coverages, but overall was okay.
The big issue I noticed was key play missed tackles. There was a play I remember that was a third down play where Texans were backed up inside their 15, and a missed tackle and bad angle lead what was a for sure 4th down punt to the drive continued for a bit later. Overall, the defense did its job and held up just enough to let the offense spark and get them back in it.
E.J. Speed and DeForest Buckner was a huge part of that momentum swing
With no Shaq Leonard, the defense started off shaky then settled in and held firm. It will be exciting to see him back and how much it will help the Colts out.
Next Week
Next week, the Colts take on the Jaguars who just had a collapse themselves to the Commanders. After all of what happened last year and now what happened with the Texans game, the Colts need to get a win here to shake away the demons.
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