The 7-4 Houston Texans regained control of the hotly contested AFC South with a 20-17 win over the 6-5 Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night at NRG Stadium.
The Texans did not make the win look easy, however. They lost the time of possession battle (33:17 over 26:43), turned over the ball once, did not score once in their two red zone visits and struggled to stop the Colts on third-down (9-15).
Nonetheless, Deshaun Watson willed his team to victory on prime time, making his night game record 5-2. Big plays ruled the day, with the Texans scoring on 30- and 35-yard touchdowns while more than doubling Indianapolis’ yards per attempt (9.6 over 4.7).
Here are the offensive, defensive and special teams snap counts from the Texans’ divisional win.
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observations
Offensive line
- Played their first full game together since Week 5 vs. Atlanta Falcons. However, it wasn’t a game to brag about, despite allowing just one sack.
- The Colts’ front-seven bullied the rush attack, as the tailbacks combined for 89 yards on 21 carries. Scratch out 52 yards on two attempts, and the Colts allowed 2.47 yards per.
Secondary
- With both Justin Reid and Mike Adams out with concussions, the Texans completely abandoned the use of three safety sets. Tashaun Gipson and Jahleel Addae saw all the snaps at safety.
- Vernon Hargreaves was not limited in his Texans debut, playing 82% of snaps, mostly all in the slot. On the outside, Gareon Conley and Johnathan Joseph played most of the contest. The trio and the safety duo worked, allowing just 129 yards on 25 attempts.
Front-seven
- The Texans gave an uptick in snaps to outside linebacker Jacob Martin, who received 24 off the edge. That paid off, as he got the only Texans sack of the day.
- Brennan Scarlett received the exact same amount as in Week 11 (53). The highlight of his day came on the last Colts’ offensive play, a game-sealing tackle on Jacoby Brissett.
- Charles Omenihu continues to carve out a role as an edge rusher in Houston’s defense, as he played 43% of snaps as compared to 30% in the week before.
- Inside linebackers Benardrick McKinney and Zach Cunningham led the way in front-seven snaps (66 each). Cunningham tallied a career-high 16 combined tackles. Everyone else, outside of the two and possibly Whitney Mercilus, is rotational.
Offensive skill positions:
- No surprise here: Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins were the only two offensive skill position players to play the entire game.
- The presumption, heading into the contest, was that the Texans were going to limit Will Fuller’s snap count in some capacity. That didn’t happen. He played 90% of snaps (53), in turn, paying it back with six receptions for 140 yards.
- Duke Johnson barely edged out Carlos Hyde in running back snaps, taking 30 to Hyde’s 29. Houston’s usage of Johnson picked up after the first quarter, as they found more success running him side-to-side.
- The Texans played more 11-personnel as compared to their uber-successful 12-personnel. Darren Fells led Houston in tight end snaps with 52 (88%) with Jordan Akins taking 28 (47%). In his return from the injured reserve, Jordan Thomas had just seven snaps.
Going forward, the Texans will host the New England Patriots on Dec. 1. Don’t expect similar snap counts against them, as Bill O’Brien has 11 days to prepare and contort his playbook in an effort to picking up his first-ever win over Bill Belichick.