Dopey Report Card -- Colts vs. Texans

We all thought C.J. Stroud would tear apart the Colts secondary. It didn't happen. Instead, Houston out-toughed the Colts in the trenches, beat Indy at its own game. A bad loss to start the season.

RUN OFFENSE

Coming into this game, I was fully convinced Jonathan Taylor would have a massive game and the Colts would control the time of possession with the running game. So what happens? Taylor runs 16 times for a paltry 48 yards, Joe Mixon goes nuts for the Texans and Houston plays keep-away, holding on to the ball for 40 minutes to the Colts’ 20. The only reason this grade isn’t an `F’ is because Anthony Richardson was effective running the ball (six carries for 56 yards, including a touchdown when he used his size and strength to power his way into the end zone). I keep hearing how great this offensive line is and year after year, they have far too many of these sorts of games.

Grade: D

RUN DEFENSE

A shocker. The Colts have been a solid-to-excellent run-stopping team in recent times, largely the result of Chris Ballard’s desire to build up his defensive line. Sunday, they got worked over. Mixon went for 159 yards on 30 carries and the Texans as a team rushed for 213 yards on 40 carries. The Colts simply couldn’t get off the field (Houston was 7-for-14 on third-down conversions). The Texans ran 76 plays from scrimmage, the Colts just 43. The craziest thing is, Houston is not a historically good rushing team, but they battered the Colts defense, especially up front. Not a banner day in the trenches on either side of the football and I didn’t think the linebackers played up to their standard. It’s never a good sign when your two leading tacklers are both safeties, Nick Cross (14 combined tackles) and Julian Blackmon (13). Lots of contract extensions for this defensive line group this offseason…and they didn’t perform. This needs to be an anomaly, or the Colts are in deep trouble. Want an incredible stat? The Texans controlled the football 24 of the last 30 minutes Sunday. Credit to The Dean, Mike Chappell, who did the research and found the Colts’ 43 plays were tied for third-fewest in a Colts game since 1998.

Grade: F

PASS OFFENSE

I mentioned this on X last night: I was fortunate to cover the second half of John Elway’s career in Denver and saw him throw some ridiculously strong-armed passes, but I can’t recall ever seeing him make a throw like the one Richardson unleashed 65 yards in the air to Alec Pierce in the first quarter. Maybe that’s recency bias but that throw was downright sick. He slipped, he threw off his back foot and casually flicked it to Pierce with defenders in his face. My guess is we’ll see one of two of those per game; the issue is, can he make the simple throws? Twice, he overthrew AD Mitchell for likely touchdowns. That will come in time, I suppose. Disappointed there was no penalty call when Richardson was slammed on his head, and even more disappointed that nobody on the offensive line came to his defense. Quiet game for the tight ends, who will have a lot of quiet games this season. Just two targets. Productive game for Pierce, who started to show what he can do with an effective deep thrower at quarterback. This doesn’t mean he’s turned the corner, but it was a sign of what’s possible. The three completions over 50 yards were the most by the Colts since at least 2000, according to the notes the Colts distributed after the game.

Grade: C