Week 9 Grade: Indianapolis Colts Defense at Texans
By Andrew Ites
The Colts’ defense held serve against a Texans offense that looked lost without Deshaun Watson, and they made enough plays at the end to eek out a victory.
Despite giving up some yards in the two minute drill near the end of the game, Indianapolis suffocated the Texans with one of their best performances of the year.
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Deshaun Watson may have earned himself an MVP award with the way Houston’s offense looked without him. A week after putting up 38 points and over 500 yards in Seattle, the Texans struggled to move the ball against a Colts defense that entered this week near the bottom of the NFL.
Tom Savage attempted to force-feed DeAndre Hopkins the ball all day, but the Colts’ secondary was focused on containing the Pro Bowl wide receiver.
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Hopkins had good fantasy football numbers with 86 yards and a touchdown, but he needed 16 targets to amass those numbers, which was good for an average of just 5.4 yards per target.
No one else on the Texans’ offense gained more than 45 yards receiving as it became apparent that Tom Savage is not an adequate NFL quarterback.
The Colts’ run defense had been a relative strength this season, but Houston was able to move the ball efficiently on the ground with 4.5 yards per carry.
Indianapolis’ inside linebackers have been a problem all year long, and they’ll need to upgrade that position this offseason through free agency and the draft.
Jabaal Sheard was our defensive player of the game with two strip-sacks, and the Colts needed him to come up big on 4th-and-goal to seal the team’s third win of the year.