In a game that started much as everyone expected, but ended completely differently, the Indianapolis Colts pulled of a huge upset of the playoff-bound Houston Texans for their second consecutive win. The Colts showed pride and determination in engineering a 19-16 come-from-behind victory that may cost the Texans a first round bye, and could cost the Colts a number one draft pick.
The game started with a sack of Colts QB Dan Orlovsky causing him to fumble the ball on his own 17-yard line. Arian Foster covered the 17 yards in two runs, giving the Texans a 7-0 lead less than one minute into the game. It looked to be a Texans rout, just as everyone had predicted. After all, the Texans entered the game 10-4, and even with the loss of their first two quarterbacks, they still had an excellent defense and excellent running game – both of which paid dividends in the first 60 seconds.
But the Colts never gave up. After a field goal battle for the next 57 minutes, the Texans kicked their last field goal to go ahead 16-12 with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter. The Colts started at their own 22, with under 2 minutes – it was a drive you would expect Peyton Manning to pull out for the win, but not these Colts – not the team that started 0-13 and led by Orlovsky, whose last start before this season was with the 0-16 2008 Lions. But Orlovsky, with the help of some timely penalties, pulled off the impossible.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the way the men on this team played,” Colts center Jeff Saturday said. “You start out spotting them 7 points, they’re the AFC South champions, they’ve got everything to play for and people would think we’ve got nothing. But the men on this team just kept fighting. We knew if we kept it close we’d have a chance late.”
The Colts scored with 0:19 left on a 1-yard pass from Orlovsky to Reggie Wayne to get the 19-16 victory. Orlovsky was 5 of 11 for 59 yards and the game winning TD on the final drive, aided by 3 penalties on the Texans which gave them another 17 yards and a key first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, on what would have been a fourth down.
Orlovsky finished the night 23 of 41 for 244 yards and 1 TD, with no INTs, aided by Reggie Wayne’s 8 catches for 108 yards and the key TD with 0:19 left.
Houston hung in all night, but wasn’t able to get the ball in the end zone in the last 59 minutes. T.J. Yates finished the game 13 of 16 for 132 yards, and the Texans had 171 yards on the ground behind Arian Foster’s 23 rushes for 158 yards and 1 TD.
“It’s a loss,” defensive end J.J. Watt said. “It’s a very, very tough loss. But at the end of the day, we’re still in the playoffs. We’re still going to make a very, very strong push in the playoffs. It’s tough. We’re going to learn from it. And then we’re going to move forward. It’s all we can do.”
The win gives the Colts a two game winning streak after an 0-13 start. They are now tied with the St. Louis Rams and the Minnesota Vikings with 2 wins for the worst record in the league and a victory against the 4-10 Jacksonville Jaguars will likely cost them the opportunity to draft Andrew Luck as a successor to Peyton Manning. If all the teams remain tied with 2 wins, the pick will be decided based on strength of schedule, which currently favors the Colts. But none of that matters to the players, who are just fighting for victories.
“I ain’t worried a bit about the draft or any of it,” Saturday said. “I’ll let the Polians worry about that, that’s their job. My job is to win football games, that’s all I care about and that’s all they tell us to care about. I’ve never heard one person in this organization ever talk about what our draft is going to be the next year. Those guys plan for it, they’re going to do their best to get the best players in here. You’ll see what you get.”
