Houston Texans end opener vs. Indianapolis Colts with a tie that felt like a loss

The Houston Texans, we have now been saying, could be a bit of spicier this season than anticipated. Although no one expects Lovie Smith’s staff to take the AFC South over the Indianapolis Colts or the Tennessee Titans, this Texans staff is lastly out of the Invoice O’Brien period from a draft decide perspective, and so they’ve executed properly to spackle over all of the personnel errors O’Brien made when he was calling the pictures.

This appeared to present itself early on in Houston’s Week 1 recreation in opposition to Indianapolis; the Texans had a 20-3 lead within the third quarter after Davis Mills hit tight finish O.J. Howard with Howard’s second landing of the day.

Nevertheless, Houston’s younger protection then allowed the Colts to attain 17 unanswered factors within the fourth quarter, and that course of ended with Matt Ryan’s 15-yard landing cross to Michael Pittman Jr. with 1:54 left within the recreation.

After which in additional time, no one scored. Colts kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 43-yard subject objective with two minutes left within the fifth quarter, and the Texans took over at their very own 32-yard line. They superior all the best way to the Colts’ 47-yard line, after which, on third-and-1 from the Indianapolis 47 with 40 seconds left, the choice was to offer the ball to working again Rex Burkhead. The veteran misplaced two yards on the play, whereas preseason stud again Dameon Pierce, who had bullied the NFL to this point, was not apparently an possibility.

Then, on fourth-and-3 from the Indy 49 and 26 seconds left, Smith made the decision to punt for a tie. Which labored ultimately, however the sequence of occasions didn’t make a ton of sense.

In his postgame presser, Smith bemoaned the shortage of potential to shut, and missed alternatives. We’ve received at the least one missed alternative that’s on you, Coach.

Story initially appeared on Landing Wire