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November 8, 2009

Colts top Texans in heart-stopping fashion, to take big lead in AFC South

By Tom James

INDIANAPOLIS — Maybe it’s better to be both lucky and good sometimes.

That turned out to be the Indianapolis Colts’ fate Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kris Brown’s potential game-tying 42-yard field goal attempt with one second remaining sailed wide left, allowing the Colts to come away with a heart-stopping 20-17 win over the Houston Texans.

The victory, Indianapolis’s eighth straight to begin the season, gives Jim Caldwell’s team a commanding 31⁄2-game lead over Houston in the AFC South race and a midseason sweep of the division. It also sets up another must-see game with the 6-2 New England Patriots, who’ll play the Colts in a nationally televised night game next Sunday.

Brown’s missed field goal, which came at the end of a furious last gasp fourth-quarter rally by Houston, was not the only mistake that the Texans made during this matchup of divisional rivals. Costly and ill-timed penalties (13 for 103 yards) kept several Indianapolis offensive drives alive.

Throw in a semi-controversial reversed video review call at the end of the first half that allowed the ball to change hands from Houston to the Colts, when the Texans thought that they had a second-and-1 at the Indianapolis 1-yard line after a 9-yard reception by running back Ryan Moats.

Moats, though, fumbled as he was going down. Rookie cornerback Jerraud Powers — who had rolled out of bounds on the play after being in on the tackle — touched the ball before it went into the end zone. After a somewhat lengthy review, the play was ruled as a touchback and Indianapolis took over at its own 20-yard line.

Not all of those plays doomed Houston, which had come into the Colts game with a 5-3 record and winners of its last three in a row. But lumped all together, it was more than enough to allow Indianapolis to come away with the game.

A Texans victory over Indianapolis would have validated Gary Kubiak’s squad as a definite contender for the AFC South crown, especially since the same two teams are scheduled to meet up again at Reliant Stadium in three weeks.

“Well, it was a great football game. I am proud of our team’s effort. They played hard. Obviously, we had a chance at the end to still be out there playing,” Kubiak said afterward. “Defense got us in the game. Offensively, we were very sloppy in the first quarter. We did not play with the poise we’ve been playing football with. But our defense kept us in there.

“We had our chances. We had two chances to win the game there at the end. The quarterback gets hit and we miss that field goal. I am proud of our team though.”

It wasn’t all Houston mistakes that contributed to the victory. Quarterback Peyton Manning came out throwing as Indianapolis went to the hurry-up offense on its first offensive possession. The Colts had 50 offensive plays in the first half of the game.

Manning, who completed 34 of 50 passes for 318 yards and a touchdown, had 40 passing attempts in the first half (he connected on 26 of them). He also had a pass intercepted. It was his seventh 300-yard passing game of the season.

Tight end Dallas Clark had a career day as he came within one catch of tying the NFL record for receptions in a game with 14 for 119 yards. Clark did tie the franchise record for catches in a game (which was set twice by former Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison) and set a new single-game mark for himself in the process.

Indianapolis also got a much needed boost from its inconsistent running game as Joseph Addai had 63 yards on 14 carries, including a tackle-breaking 2-yard run for a touchdown with 7:11 remaining in the fourth quarter. It proved to be the game-winning score for the Colts.

Caldwell’s team had charged to a 13-3 lead at the half, thanks to a 7-yard pass from Manning to Addai and a pair of field goals from Matt Stover (22 and 37 yards).

Indianapolis controlled the game on both sides of the ball for most of the first two quarters, but failed to take full advantage of its numerous scoring opportunities. The Colts had the football inside the Houston 25-yard four times in the first half.

“We did the things we planned to do, which was to go up-tempo,” Caldwell said. “It was almost like our two-minute operations to take over the game. And that was obviously by design. We wanted to press the issue and be as expressive as we possibly could.”

The Texans had some luck go their way at the end of the second quarter as Brown had a 56-yard field goal attempt partially blocked by rookie linebacker Cody Glenn. Caldwell, though, called timeout before the ball was snapped and Houston had a second chance at the kick. This time Brown nailed it and the Colts took a 13-3 lead into the locker room.

Houston narrowed the margin to 13-10 on its opening possession of the third quarter when quarterback Matt Schaub hit Moats on a 1-yard pass with 8:31 left in the period. The Texans then took their only lead of the game when running back Steve Slaton bulled over from a yard out on third-and-goal with 14:58 left in the game.

After a sluggish start, in which he was sacked twice by Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney and intercepted by Powers, Schaub settled down. He ended the game by completing 32 of 43 passes for 311 yards and a touchdown. In addition to Powers’ interception — the first of his NFL career — weakside linebacker Clint Session added a momentum-shifting interception in the fourth quarter.

Andre Johnson had 10 catches for 103 yards while former Purdue standout Bernard Pollard, a native of Fort Wayne, had a pair of interceptions for the Texans.

“I think when you look at our defense, we did play well,” Caldwell said. “I think we got three three-and-outs at the beginning of the game. We started out like a ball of fire. We had a little bit of a lapse, but then we came back and did well at the end.”



Colts 20, Texans 17

At Lucas Oil Stadium

Houston 0 3 7 7 — 17

Indianapolis 10 3 0 7 — 20

Ind—Addai 7 pass from Manning (Stover kick)

Ind—FG Stover 22

Ind—FG Stover 37

Hou—FG K.Brown 56

Hou—Moats 1 pass from Schaub (K.Brown kick)

Hou—Slaton 1 run (K.Brown kick)

Ind—Addai 2 run (Stover kick)

Hou Ind

First downs 22 27

Total Net Yards 382 378

Rushes-yards 26-81 18-72

Passing 301 306

Punt Returns 0-0 2-8

Kickoff Returns 5-113 1-14

Interceptions Ret. 2-36 2-9

Comp-Att-Int 32-43-2 34-51-2

Sacked-Yards Lost 2-10 2-12

Punts 4-43.5 3-32.7

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 13-103 4-40

Time of Possession 34:33 25:27

RUSHING—Houston, Moats 16-38, Schaub 3-21, Slaton 6-17, Jones 1-5. Indianapolis, Addai 14-63, Clark 1-4, Simpson 2-3, Manning 1-2.

PASSING—Houston, Schaub 32-43-2-311. Indianapolis, Manning 34-50-1-318, Wayne 0-1-1-0.

RECEIVING—Houston, A.Johnson 10-103, Walter 5-67, Jones 4-67, Anderson 3-19, Moats 3-15, Slaton 3-12, Dreessen 2-15, Hill 1-9, Leach 1-4. Indianapolis, Clark 14-119, Wayne 8-64, Garcon 5-60, Addai 5-49, Collie 2-26.

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