An 0-3 start, for the second straight year, is the reality facing the Houston Texans after another game slipped away in the closing seconds.
Houston looked ready to steal one late on Sunday. The Texans wiped out a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit and grabbed a 17-16 lead with under two minutes left when Woody Marks scored on a touchdown run. But the Colts answered with one last drive, and Spencer Shrader knocked through a 53-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining to send Houston to a 19-17 loss.
The Texans still had a shot to respond. C.J. Stroud found Dalton Schultz for 17 yards to push the ball near midfield, but the comeback ended there after two incompletions.
For most of the afternoon, Houston’s defense gave the team a chance to hang around. The Texans forced three Indianapolis turnovers and kept the Colts from fully breaking things open, even as the offense continued to sputter.
Stroud completed 16 of 27 passes for 167 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. With Nico Collins unavailable, Houston had trouble finding big plays down the field and finished with just 223 total yards.
Indianapolis was in control for most of the game, including after halftime, when Houston went scoreless in the third quarter. The Colts stretched their lead to nine early in the fourth before the Texans finally woke up.
Ka’imi Fairbairn opened the door with a field goal, and then Houston put together its best drive of the day when it needed it most. Stroud helped guide the offense into Colts territory, and Marks finished it off from a yard out to give Houston its first lead.
It still wasn’t enough to save the day.
It’s not often a team turns the ball over three times on defense, avoids offensive turnovers, and still walks away with a loss. But that’s exactly where the Texans are after another frustrating finish.
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DeMeco Ryans Just Put The Texans' Biggest Early Problem On Himself
The Texans 0-3 start has already turned every narrow miss into a bigger conversation, and the latest one came in a 19-17 loss to the Colts. Houston has flashed enough on offense to suggest the pieces are there, but the results have not followed, and the frustration is starting to land where it often does in a young season, on the coaching staff and how it is handling the details that decide close games.
DeMeco Ryans put that burden on himself after the loss, saying he has not coached well enough and that the team needs better preparation and adjustments. For a Texans team trying to turn promising stretches into actual wins, the issue now is not just execution on Sundays but whether the sideline can help clean up the decision-making and urgency that have kept those games from flipping in Houstons favor. [Read more 🡒]
DeMeco Ryans Is Trying To Stop Texans Pressure From Getting Worse
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Week 4 brings the Dallas Cowboys, a test that will say plenty about whether Houston can clean up its issues and turn the page. Ryans knows the pressure is only going to build if the Texans keep falling behind early, so the next step is less about talk and more about finding a way to play cleaner football when it matters most. [Read more 🡒]
Texans Are Already Asking Too Much Of C.J. Stroud
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For the Texans, that puts an unfair amount on Strouds shoulders and leaves little margin for error if defenses keep treating Houston as a one-dimensional offense. David Montgomery and Woody Marks have not yet given the unit the steadier production it needs, and until that changes, the Texans will keep asking their quarterback to carry far more of the load than any young passer should have to. [Read more 🡒]