With Peyton Manning missing his first game since he started his NFL career, the Indianapolis Colts were defeated by the Houston Texans 34-7. Kerry Collins went 16 of 31 for 197 yards and 1 TD, but the Colts didn’t find the end zone until halfway through the fourth quarter.
The Texans scored all 34 of their points in the first half, on rushing TDs by Ben Tate and Derrick Ward and a 79-yard punt return for a TD by Jacoby Jones.
“I just told them: ‘We’re going to be all right. It’s a long season and there’s no reason to worry,’” Colts star wide receiver Reggie Wayne said. “We were in the same position last year and we still accomplished our goal and that’s taking care of our division.”
Collins played fairly well, especially given that he was only brought in about two weeks ago and has had limited time to learn the offense. But he did fumble on consecutive snaps that set up Texans touchdowns in the first quarter, and he was sacked three times.
“This wasn’t the day, obviously, that we’d hoped for, but it’s a long season,” Collins said. “I don’t care what the situation is, we just can’t do those things and expect to have a chance to be in the ball game. We’ve got a lot to do obviously. We’ll get back to work.”
Kerry Collins is an experienced quarterback, having been in the league since 1995. He has thrown for over 40,000 yards in his career, which includes stints with the Panthers, Saints, Giants, Raiders, and Titans.
As the season progresses, Collins figures to get more and more comfortable with the offense and the Colts will be able to open up the playbook more, but Manning’s implementation of the offense was unique, as he functions as an on-field offensive coordinator and has decision making authority beyond any quarterback in the league, or even in memory.
Manning’s absence may ultimately prove to be an even better demonstration of his MVP credentials than his presence has been for the prior 208 starts.
