The Texans came up short on Thursday night.
Andre Johnson, who fumbled with 4:47 remaining in the game, said "that's probably why we lost tonight."
Strong words, but ultimately, not entirely accurate ones.
The Texans made enough mistakes in the first quarter alone to keep them from winning.
"We played horrible in the first half," cornerback Kareem Jackson said. "That's it. We played as bad as we could play, in every aspect on defense, tackling, covering."
Indianapolis built a 24-0 lead in the first quarter by virtue of a few big passes, key defensive stops and an onside kick. Pat McAfee and the Colts followed up the Adam Vinatieri field goal by converting the onside kick. Two plays later, they were in the end zone and up 10-0 just 3:15 into the game. McAfee squibbed the kick 11 yards in front of him and fell on it with nobody around him.
"That's terrible," head coach Bill O'Brien said of the kick. "We can't allow that to happen. We talk about that all week and that starts with coaching, and we just can't allow that to happen."
In that opening quarter, Andrew Luck found T.Y. Hilton deep on completions of 40 yards, 54 yards and 37 yards.
"They were hot and came out to hit a lot of big plays and we had no answer," linebacker Brian Cushing. "It is a tale of two halves. Like I said, we have to finish."
The offense, meanwhile, didn't get a first down. The Texans were 0-for-3 on third down. They had nine plays that gained a combined 2 yards of offense. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw four passes, and none were completed.
