The Indianapolis Colts welcomed a resurgent Houston Texans team to Lucas Oil Stadium in Week 13 in what felt almost like a must-win game. Luckily, it wasn't a true must-win game, as Indy would go on to lose by a score of 20-16, but this is a loss that not only severely hurts the Colts' chance for a better playoff seed, but also suddenly puts them in second place for the division behind Jacksonville.
When Indy was 7-1 through the first eight weeks of the season, it felt like the division was already locked up for them. Since then, the team has lost three of its last four games, and the formerly high-flying offense has been grounded to mediocrity. The Pittsburgh Steelers put out a blueprint on how to hamper Indianapolis' offense, and teams have been quick to use it.
Obviously, there are other factors that led to this skid. It's been revealed that Daniel Jones is playing with a fractured fibula that is clearly affecting his play, and very early on in the Colts-Texans contest, star cornerback Sauce Gardner was brought to the locker room with what is being called a non-contact calf injury.
Winners and losers for the Indianapolis Colts in Week 13 loss
Vibes are low in Indy, and while it may not be time to hit the panic button yet, it sure feels like it's trending that way.
Winner No. 1: Alec Pierce
It wasn't Indy's best day against what may be the best defense in the entire league in the Houston Texans, but one player especially stood out. That player was Alec Pierce, who made play after play to bail out the offense when they needed it most.
Quarterback Daniel Jones performed admirably against constant pressure when considering into account how much his mobility was held back by a fractured fibula injury. Still, it was clear how much he was limited, and having a target with such a massive catch radius as Alec Pierce really helped him out.
Pierce finished the day as the Colts' leading receiver with 78 yards, and he was the one to score the first touchdown of the contest, reeling in a beautiful moon ball that Daniel Jones layered in to him behind two defensive backs. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to secure the win, but Alec Pierce did everything he could to help out the team today.
Loser No. 1: Michael Badgley
This game was as close a game as can be expected when two division contenders face off in a late regular season match. In those games, every single point is of critical importance. It's a shame to say it, but the kicking unit leaving points on the table has become almost commonplace as of late in Indianapolis.
It's no stretch to say that the one missed extra point that kicker Michael Badgley missed may have been the difference between a win and a loss. The game came down to the Colts needing to convert a fourth and 9 in the red zone to keep themselves alive in a game where they were down 20-16 late.
They failed to convert and ultimately lost, but had Badgley simply converted that extra point early on, the team could have easily kicked a chip-shot field goal to send the game to overtime.
Late in the season, especially, margins of victory become razor-thin, and one point left on the table can easily send a team's season off course. The surging Texans are one of the teams that Indy wants to beat most in the entire league at this point, and Badgley's missed kick may have cost them a desperately needed divisional win.
Loser No. 2: Sauce Gardner
Sauce Gardner went down with a non-contact calf injury at the very start of the Colts' Week 13 matchup against the Texans. For now, there is reason to be optimistic, but Indiana-based fans are hoping desperately that they didn't just watch another Achilles injury so soon after watching franchise star Tyrese Haliburton go down in Game 7 of the NBA finals for the Pacers.
There's no official diagnosis of Gardner's injury as of now, but non-contact injuries tend to be the worst kind. The best outcome here is that Gardner suffered a calf strain and will only be out for a few weeks, but even then, the team would have to be cautious bringing him back. Rushing back too quickly from a calf strain is exactly what led to Haliburton's disastrous injury just a few months ago.
Gardner has played high-quality football for the Colts since being acquired at the trade deadline, but his addition was clearly a win-now move that Indy paid a premium for.
With the Colts now having lost three out of their last four and Gardner having suffered an injury that may keep him out for critical games that the Colts will need to win to keep their divisional hopes alive, this is definitely not the ideal outcome that Chris Ballard hoped for when he pulled the trigger on this blockbuster move.
Winner No. 2: Cam Bynum
Cam Bynum was able to reel in the team's lone interception against Houston on the day, and that splash play is what lands him this spot on the list. Really, however, this spot belongs to almost the entire defense. The offense had a rough outing, but the defense kept the game close.
It was much the same blueprint as last week's game against the Chiefs, and unfortunately, it resulted in the same outcome.
Houston has not been a prolific offense for the vast majority of the year, but they're getting healthy at the perfect time for the late-season stretch, with quarterback CJ Stroud now firing on all cylinders after Davis Mills filled in for a few weeks. The Texans may have started the year 0-3, but they've been resurgent since then, and this is a much better team than their already good 7-5 record suggests.
There's already been much made of CB Sauce Gardner's injury, but credit has to be given to Lou Anarumo and the Indianapolis defense. Gardner's absence must have thrown off the entire game plan for the defense, but they were still able to keep the score manageable. The defense gave the offense the chance to take the lead, but unfortunately, they weren't able to take full advantage of it.
Really, this is one of the remaining games on the Colts' schedule that they wanted to lose the least. What once seemed like a vice grip on the division has now dwindled to a current second-place standing for the Colts, and they need to finish the year strong despite injury to keep the division title that they've been striving for a reality.
Finally, it's not often that teams can blame officiating for a loss and have any semblance of truth to that argument, but there were a few calls that didn't go the Colts way that were really impactful and deserve to be mentioned.
For one, Texans Kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn had a very close extra point of his own that seemed like it could have sailed directly over the goalpost instead of inside of it, but was still counted.
For another, there was an egregiously bad pass interference on CB Kenny Moore that extended a critical Houston offensive drive. Let's reiterate, the officiating is not the reason that Indianapolis lost the game; it was their own inability to execute that did, but these are key contextualizing details in a very close game that deserve their own mention.
It's no secret that the Colts are now in a full-on skid, and no one is going to pull them out of it besides themselves. Week 14 sees them face another tough divisional contest in the form of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and if they lose that game, then their hopes for the division may just evaporate.
Jacksonville already holds the tiebreaker between the two teams, and a head-to-head win may be the death knell for Indy's divisional hopes. Shane Steichen and company desperately need to bounce back next week.