South Shocker: Houston Texans Hang On for Week 1 OT Tie vs. Colts
The Houston Texans came into Sunday’s Week 1 visit to NRG Stadium from the Indianapolis Colts Sunday harboring a belief that they are “new and improved.”
And Texans 20, Colts 20 - an OT tie - establishes that for one Sunday, anyway, the Texans are so "new and improved” that they were able to completely flip the script against a Colts team that last year buried Houston in two meetings by a combined score of 62-3.
But not so "new and improved'' to be able to win.
“Your opener is against a team that really embarrassed you last year,” receiver Brandin Cooks said before kickoff. “You don’t forget, but you don’t let that cloud and ‘gray’ affect what you have to get done.
“You still have to focus on the details and don’t get too carried away on necessarily revenge.”
The “cloud and the gray”? Suspended QB Deshaun Watson is gone and failed coach David Culley is gone. ... and maybe the vast inferiority to the contending Colts is gone, too, thanks largely to veteran newcomers on both sides of the ball.
O.J. Howard, just signed this week, caught a pair of TD passes from Davis Mills (becoming just the third tight end in the last 50 years to do so in a debut with a new team) to power the offense. And defensive lineman Jerry Hughes (just the third player in team history to record an interception, sack and forced fumble in a single game, and he did it all in the first half) typified a defense that kept the dangerous Indy super-back Jonathan Taylor (31 carries, 161 yards), new Colts QB Matt Ryan and top receiver Michael Pittman out of the end zone completely until late in the game, when Taylor's short TD narrowed Houston's 20-6 lead.
Truthfully, though, that was part of a collapse on the part of the Texans, who could do little offensively in the second half, and who needed Indy to miss a 42-yard field-goal try in regulation to forge this tie ... which Houston sort of "settled for'' with its late decision-making.
"We didn't finish the way we wanted,'' said coach Lovie Smith, who explained his late-game strategy. "I thought a tie was better than a potential loss.''
The revenge? It didn't figure this way, not that the Colts now have ex-Falcons NFL MVP Ryan at QB. But his 15 years of experience did not help him enough against a Houston defense that - for three-and-a-half quarters, anyway - allowed some yards but not much else.
Meanwhile, second-year Houston QB Davis Mills (23 of 37 for 240 yards) looked equipped to more than match Ryan, especially now that he has Howard to take some of the load off Cooks (seven catches for 82 yards).
Houston’s Smith, elevated this year to head coach, has supervised a revamped secondary featuring two first-year starters with star potential in Derek Stingley and Jalen Pitre. They held up, to some degree (Houston's D was led by Kamu Grugier-Hill's 17 tackles), and another rookie, Dameon Pierce, got his feet wet with 11 carries for 33 yards.
New guys. New results. The Texans-tormenting Colts have not been defeated. But maybe this tie - as disappointing as it is in some ways - means “the cloud and the gray” has been.
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