The Indianapolis Colts are now 8-4 on the season following Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans.
The Colts have lost two in a row and three of their last four games. Their lead in the AFC South race has evaporated.
After rewatching the latest game, let’s highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Colts’ Week 13 performance.
The good from the Colts vs. Texans game
Red zone defense: It was a bend but don’t break performance for the Colts’ defense. Houston totaled 364 yards of offense and made five red zone trips. However, they scored only two touchdowns.
Alec Pierce: Pierce continues to be a go-to target for Daniel Jones. On Sunday, he caught 4-of-5 passes for 78 yards with a touchdown. While he brings that big-play ability to the offense, Pierce’s role has expanded this season with him attacking other levels of the field and doing so in a variety of ways.
The bad from Colts vs. Texans
Third and fourth down offense: Combined on these crucial downs, the Colts converted only 3-of-12 attempts. In part, this was the product of a run game that was bottled up for much of the day, which meant that the offense had to play from behind the sticks.
Production from the defensive ends: It felt like, for much of the game, CJ Stroud had the time he needed in the pocket to go through his reads and deliver the pass. As a defense, the Colts totaled two sacks and five quarterback hits on 35 pass attempts from Stroud. The defensive end position group was responsible for just two of the quarterback hits, both of which belonged to JT Tuimoloau.
Ball security: This has been a problem in recent games, and we again saw the Colts’ offense put the ball on the ground twice in this game. Fortunately, they were able to recover both fumbles, but one came on a 4th-and-1 that ended a drive.
Uncertainty at kicker: Michael Badgley missed another extra point on Sunday. It was just a few weeks ago prior to the bye week that he missed an extra point attempt and a field goal in that game.
The ugly from the Colts vs. Texans game
Discrepency in plays ran for each offense: The difference wasn’t as big as last week, but the Colts were again at a major disadvantage when it came to the number of plays ran by each offense in this game. Houston held the ball for almost 10 minutes longer than the Colts and ran 20 more plays on offense. For just about any team, that discrepancy is going to be a lot to overcome — the opponent just has far more opportunities to score. While the Colts’ offense struggled to stay on the field on third downs, the Texans were quite efficient, moving the chains on 6-of-13 attempts, which contributed to this outcome.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Colts vs. Texans: Good, bad, ugly from Week 13 loss
