The Indianapolis Colts seemed to be on the ropes a few different times against Houston but continued to fight back throughout the game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Texans come away with the Week 1 victory.
As always, with the game having just wrapped up, here are our instant takeaways from the Colts’ performance.
– That touchdown throw from Anthony Richardson to Alec Pierce was absolutely absurd. What a display of arm strength and talent to put that ball on the mark 60-plus yards downfield while under pressure. Overall, it wasn’t a perfect performance, but Colts fans should be extremely excited about what they saw from Richardson. He makes plays happen.
– The good for the Colts’ passing game was the explosive plays. Richardson finished the game with two touchdown passes of 50 or more yards, along with another pass to Pierce for 57 yards.
– On the flip side, and as was to be expected, there were missed opportunities by Richardson as well. He missed AD Mitchell on a fourth down throw on the first possession. He couldn’t connect with Mitchell in the second quarter on what would have been a touchdown, and then again in the fourth quarter. There was a near interception on the third possession and then the interception in the red zone–although it looked like Kylen Granson slipping played a factor in that.
– It was great to see Mitchell’s ability to regularly separate from coverage. He and Richardson were just not quite on the same page. We also heard GM Chris Ballard say that Pierce had his best training camp to date, and we saw the effects of that in Week 1.
– The Colts did well of getting after CJ Stroud. However, when the pressure wasn’t able to get home, Stroud was efficient against the Colts’ secondary and generated a few explosive pass plays as well.
– At times for help against the Colts pass rush, the Texans brought in an extra blocker or two an anticipated their pass catchers winning their one-on-one matchups.
– Where the defensive front struggled was in the run game. Joe Mixon mostly did whatever he wanted on the ground. This often put the Houston offense in short down-and-distance situations, giving them the advantage and putting the Colts’ secondary in even more of a bind.
– The Colts’ passing game certainly missed Josh Downs, which isn’t a surprise given his impact. Not to downplay the importance of the explosive passing plays they generated, but the offense did lack overall consistency through the air.
– Particularly early on, I thought we would have seen a greater emphasis on getting Jonathan Taylor the ball in the run game. At around the seven minute mark in the second quarter, Taylor had just four carries.
– And speaking of the run game, what was thought to be an advantage for the Colts–their interior offensive line against the Texans interior defensive line–didn’t play out that way. It was mostly tough sledding for Taylor and those struggled made moving the ball through the air more difficult when faced with predictable passing situations.
– The success that the Colts did have on the ground largely came from Richardson. Everything becomes so much more difficult when the run game is struggling.
– With the Texans picking up yards in the run game efficiently, they were able to control the time of possession–nearly doubling up the Colts.
– What a momentum shift that sack and then blocked punt was. Houston was up 15-7 at that time and had the ball. But within three plays it was 15-13 just like that.
– That momentum then swung in the other direction when the Texans converted a third-and-16 on the next possession, along with a Kenny Moore interception being negated by a holding penalty.
– The Texans won the turnover battle 1-0, although the Colts did have two interceptions that were negated. On one, JuJu Brents couldn’t get both feet down and then on the other, Jaylon Jones was called for holding.
– Nico Collins had another 100-plus yard performance against the Colts–something he did twice in 2023.
– Rookie kicker Spencer Shrader didn’t have any field goal attempts filling in for Matt Gay but did make all three extra point attempts.
– The Texans were 3-for-3 in the red zone. That’s difficult to overcome if you’re the Colts.