The Indianapolis Colts suffered another loss to the Houston Texans. Not only are the Colts now two games back in the win column, but the Texans have the head-to-head tie-breaker as well.
It was a day where the Colts’ defense was able to hold its own, and the return of Jonathan Taylor and DeForest Buckner brought a much-needed boost on both sides of the ball. However, a poor passing game was too much for Indianapolis to overcome.
Now that we’ve had time to look back and digest what we saw, let’s take a look at the Colts’ performance with the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.
The Good
Jonathan Taylor
The return of Taylor to the lineup provide the Colts’ offense with at least some sort of stability. Taylor finished the game with 20 carries–although there was room for more–totaling 105 rushing yards at 5.3 yards per attempt.
The Colts’ pass rush
The Colts were able to pressure CJ Stroud on 46 percent of his dropbacks–which was among the highest pressure rates for a quarterback in Week 8 and was a season-high for the Colts’ defense. The return of DeForest Buckner certainly played a role in this, but Gus Bradley’s usage of stunts and blitzes were key as well.
Red zone and third down defense
Overall, it was a good showing from the Colts’ defense. Against a good Houston offense, there were times where the run game or passing game generated some big plays, but for the most part, it was tough sledding for the Texans. Two keys to keeping this game close and giving the Indianapolis offense a chance was that inside the red zone, the Texans were just 2-for-6 at converting those opportunities into touchdowns. On third downs, Houston was just 4-for-13. A lot of that success started with pressures and limiting running back Joe Mixon to a modest 4.1 yards per attempt.
The Bad
End of half decision-making
What a swing that interception was. Instead of the Colts going into halftime tied and beginning the third quarter with the ball, they were down a touchdown. Then following a punt to start the third quarter and Texans’ field goal, just like that, Indianapolis was down two scores.
Early downs for the offense
Whether it be a penalty, a dropped pass or off-target throw, or a run play that didn’t go anywhere, the Colts were bad on early downs. This then put the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, which their passing offense is nowhere near good enough to overcome. Having Taylor to lean on in the run game helped, but when there is no sort of movement through the short or intermediate passing games, that’s a tough way to live for an offense.
Pass-blocking
The Colts entered the game ranked second in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric. However, they faced one of the best pass rush units in football, and lost that battle. By PFF’s metrics, Anthony Richardson was under pressure on nearly 50 percent of his dropbacks.
The Ugly
Colts’ passing offense
There’s no sugarcoating it–Richardson hasn’t been good. The lack of improvement that we’ve seen this season from him is concerning. As already alluded to, while big plays are great, it’s really difficult to sustain drives when there is no short or intermediate passing game. But with that said, and this isn’t excusing Richardson’s performance, but it’s part of the Colts’ reality, when things are this bad, it’s on everyone. The Colts’ pass catchers didn’t help Richardson with some dropped passes, struggling to separate, and issues in contested catch situations. Shane Steichen needs to reduce the number of longer developing routes, and have Richardson get the ball out of his hands and in some sort of rhythm. Sunday’s game against Houston was again another performance with very few designed runs for Richardson as well–taking away one of the elements of his game that makes him such a dynamic presence–and the run-pass mix is often out of balance. Having a player like Taylor to lean on can take some of the burden off the passing game. Overall, it’s not even close to good enough and everyone has to be better–especially Richardson.
(This article was updated to provide additional information).