Battle Red Blog
What was the good, bad, and ugly from Sunday’s close victory?
The Houston Texans do what they do best on Sunday. They won another close game. The one score win was the 10th such win in the DeMeco Ryans era as he has an excellent winning percentage in such games. I suppose we could argue that it is a sustainable model for victory, but it doesn’t feel like it. It was yet another game where a few key plays made the game closer than it should have been. More on that later.
There was obviously a ton of good and most of it happened on the defensive end. No one is ever going to accuse Anthony Richardson of being an accurate passer, but a 10 for 32 performance from any quarterback is a staggering performance and it is high time the national media recognizes that this is a feature of the Ryans defense and not a bug.
However, like most games, this game came down to the key numbers that we will look at below. Usually, the winning team makes fewer key errors than the losing team and this game was no different. As the season goes on, we begin to see distinctive patterns and that is why we do this feature in the first place.
Total Yards: Houston Texans 68/365, Indianapolis Colts 63/287
Rushing Yards: Texans 29/98, Colts 26/150
Passing Yards: Texans 39/267, Colts 37/124
Turnovers: Texans 1, Colts 2
Sacks: Texans 5, Colts 2
Penalties: Texans 5/30, Colts 9/58
Time of Possession: Texans 35:20, Colts 24:40
The numbers tell their own story, but the turnover battle is a little deceiving. Technically speaking, the Colts lost a fumble on the very last play of the game, but it really doesn’t factor in the outcome. That also counts as a sack which certainly pads Danielle Hunter’s stat sheet, but probably changed very little.
If I were a Colts fan I would be asking some very pointed questions of Shane Steichen and the offensive staff. Continuing to go with Anthony Richardson is one thing. I get that they probably aren’t a title contender and think the best longterm play is to give the kid as much experience as possible. However, there is no reason why Jonathan Taylor should get only 20 carries. Heck, I’d have given a backup another ten carries and called a few quarterback runs on top of everything. Having Richardson drop back and throw 37 times borders on cruelty at this point.
Obviously, the defensive effort was one of the best of the season overall. Josh Downs did score a 69 yard touchdown on a coverage that Jalen Pitre got picked off on. Congratulations to the Colts for getting the easiest touchdown scored against the Texans this season. Otherwise, it was a struggle all day for the Colts and Anthony Richardson. In two combined games against the Texans, Richardson is 19 for 51 with three touchdowns and two interceptions. A 38 percent...
