Indianapolis Colts beat Houston Texans (Part 1)
The Indianapolis Colts are now leading AFC South with 5-2-0. After Tennessee Titans lost their week 8 game to San Diego Chargers on Sunday, Colts have now settled comfortably into the first place in the division. Colts won their 5th game today
against the Houston Texans. Indianapolis boast one of the best offenses in the league and a defence which complements the offense. Texans were simply outplayed and at no point, did they threaten or put pressure on the Colts.
Facing Colts’ exemplary offense was one of the weakest defences in the league. Houston rank 32nd in pass rush while Colts rank 3rd. But, the Texan offense tries to make up for it and has been able to do that quiet well until now. All
of Houston’s games so far this season were high yard games and before Houston faced the Colts, they had beaten four out of six opponents with their highly productive offense.
Texan quarterback, Matt Schaub has 10 touchdowns to his credit as well as a whopping 1,739 yards. He averages almost 250 yards per game but against the colts, he was just not at his best. Colts' defence started to pound on Schaub early on and never let up
on the pressure.
Houston’s offense started the first quarter. Schaub opened with an 11 yard pass to wide receiver, Andre Johnson. This season, Johnson and Schaub have worked in concert for 594 yards in 39 receptions. Johnson would lead the Texans again in received yards
against Indianapolis Colts.
Schaub was unable to complete the next two passes of the drive and then was sacked by Indianapolis defence. Defensive end, Dwight Freeney came through with the 6 yards sack for the Colts. Houston were forced to punt after just 11 yards on the first drive.
Indianapolis quarterback, Peyton Manning started off even worse than Schaub did. Starting at the 40 yard line, Manning failed to connect on all three of his first pass attempts and Colts went for the punt while still on the 40 yard line. While Peyton would
pick up the game, Schaub would continue to struggle to the end.
On Houston’s next offensive drive, Schaub failed to get yards again but the offense was able to keep afloat at first with the help from Running back Arian Foster. He rushed 5, 9 and 4 yards consecutively before Schaub took over from the centre of the field.
The quarterback tried and failed twice before Matt Turk was called on field for the punt.
Colts had enough of the slow game and were ready to pick things up. Houston’s defence pales in comparison to Indianapolis’ offense. Peyton just needed to get in the zone and after the second failed drive by Houston, it appeared that Manning was ready to
make plays. But before Manning started earning the yards, it would be running back Mike Hart’s time to shine. Hart rushed 35 yards on the first play before he was pushed out of bounds by Houston’s free safety, Eugene Wilson.
A play later, Manning threw an 11 yard pass to Reggie Wayne. The wide receiver caught the ball in the middle and dived forward for first down. The pass marked the 10,000 yards milestone for Wayne. Manning wasn’t done just yet. He followed up the 11 yards
with a 26 yard deep left pass to tight end Jacob Tamme and pushed into Houston’s red zone.
Tamme also received the 2 yard touchdown pass. He went straight down towards the end zone, turned around signalling that he would cut left of right but instead continued on downwards, thus deceiving the Texans. Manning passed to Tamme when he was open and
he caught the pass without any hiccups.
With the extra point, Colts led 7 to nothing with almost 7 minutes in the quarter still remaining. Neither team was able to make any use of the remaining time though.
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