The Houston Texans are in a much different place now than the first time they faced the Indianapolis Colts this season when they were 0-3 and
desperate for a win.Ka'imi Fairbairn made a field goal as time expired in
overtime to lead the Texans to a 37-34 victory in that game and they haven't
lost since
Will Fuller V Jersey White , reeling off a franchise-record nine straight wins entering Sunday's rematch.Houston (9-3) led 28-10 in the third
quarter in that first meeting before Andrew Luck threw three second-half
touchdowns to rally the Colts (6-6) and set up the wild finish.The Colts failed
to convert a fourth-and-4 with 24 seconds left in overtime to give Fairbairn a
chance to win it."Being up 28-10 ... and then letting them come back and being
down in overtime and pulling through the adversity it kind of slingshot us to
where we are now," Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson said."That was one game
where we went through all types of phases and situations that put us through
this nine-game win streak. It was the start of everything."Defensive end J.J.
Watt said that Sept. 30 game seems as if it was a long time ago and noted how
difficult it has been for the Texans to win in Indy, a place where they're just
3-14 all time."We needed one to get started. That was the one to get us started
on this streak," Watt said. "Bit of an unorthodox way to get it, but we got it.
So, here we are."The Texans are coming off a 29-13 win over the Cleveland Browns
while the Colts were shut out 6-0 by the Jaguars last week to end a five-game
winning streak."The Jacksonville game was tough," Luck said. "They outplayed us.
There's not much else to say about it. As a defense against our offense, they
just flat outplayed us ... we took a good look at it and we'll improve. I know
we will."Some things to know about Sunday's game between the Colts and
Texans.TOUCHDOWN THOMASHouston rookie tight end Jordan Thomas has a knack for
scoring with four touchdown catches despite having just 14 receptions this
season. His four touchdown receptions are tied with Andre Johnson for
second-most TD receptions by a rookie in franchise history. The 6-foot-6,
277-pound Thomas has been a favorite target of Watson's in the red zone with all
his scores coming on catches of 13 yards or less.NEW BALANCECoach Frank Reich
has stressed the need to find balance since he took the Colts' job in
February.When these teams met previously
Whitney Mercilus Jersey White , Luck set single-game franchise records with 40 completions and 62 attempts and became the 11th player in league history to
throw for 450 yards and four TDs. He wound up with 464 yards, second in
franchise history, and four scores.Since then, an improved ground game helped
lessen the burden on Luck's arm ??until last week when he threw 52 passes,
including 14 straight during one stretch, in the loss to Jacksonville. Don't
expect the Colts to be so one-dimensional in Houston."You never want to have to
drop back and pass it 52 times," offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni said. "We
always want to run it more. Just in that scenario, the way we were running it,
we had some plays on our call sheet that we felt were going to be good to
hit
http://www.thetexanslockerroom.com/authentic-julien-davenport-jersey , some chunks in the pass game and that's the way we went."THE BIG DHouston also
will see a different defense.After allowing an average of 30 points over their
first six games, the Colts cut that number to 16.8 points over the past six.
Indy is the only team to have forced at least one turnover in every game this
season, is second in the league in tackles for loss (71.0) and rookie linebacker
Darius Leonard leads the league in tackles (122) and is tied for fourth in
forced fumbles (four).First-year defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus sees it as
a good start."We feel we have set the standard of how we want to play in terms
of the style. Now we just need to execute on a consistent basis and just keep
doing that week in and week out," he said. "There are a lot of things that we
have to improve on, but we have come a long way."DEANDRE'S ARTOn a TV show this
week, Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis said the way DeAndre Hopkins catches a
football "is an art" and the Houston star agrees."There's more to it than just
going out and catching a football," he said. "There's a lot of factors that go
on before that. It's for sure an art and repetition makes perfect."Hopkins
routinely makes nearly impossible catches look run of the mill and Watson has
said that he believes Hopkins will catch anything he throws his way. His latest
nifty catch came last week against the Browns on a 24-yard reception near the
sideline that came after T.J. Carrie grabbed his dreadlocks to try and slow him
down.Hopkins knows that he makes it look easy, but wanted to make clear that it
is not."It's harder than people think," he said. "Especially like me I usually
have a defender on me or close to me so catching the football isn't easy for me
like it is for some people who are wide open. It's a challenge for me to play
through that and still catch it."AP Sports Writer Michael Marot contributed to
this report. The Houston Texans recently interviewed two
African-Americans
Womens Kendall Lamm Jersey , Ray Farmer and Martin Mayhew, for their General Manager vacancy. Then the Texans tried to hire Nick Caserio for the job.
Then the Texans didn’t hire anyone when Caserio couldn’t get out of his contract
with the Patriots.That leads to an obvious question: Were the interviews with
Farmer and Mayhew legitimate? Or were they a violation of the spirit of the
Rooney Rule, an attempt to check the box by interviewing minorities but not
really giving them an opportunity to get the job?When PFT put that question
today to the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s new executive director, Rod Graves, Graves
said he had some concerns about how the Texans conducted their G.M. search.“We
are concerned about how the Rooney Rule was used,” Graves said. “They brought
those gentlemen in quickly, gave the impression they were looking to make a fast
decision, and then they came off of it.”Despite reports that the Texans do not
plan to hire a G.M., Graves said he still hopes Farmer or Mayhew gets a shot.“I
have not heard definitively that they have abandoned their process of replacing
their general manager
Womens Ibraheim Campbell Jersey , but if they have, it is a concern,” Graves said. “It is a concern that two outstanding candidates, Martin Mayhew and
Ray Farmer, were not part of their alternative plan even if, in fact, they had
an initial option of looking at Nick Caserio first. I understand the reasons why
Nick may have been appealing, but through my own experience, we’ve always gone
into interviews with a Plan B.”Graves said the Fritz Pollard Alliance would be
happy to help the Texans identify candidates for the job
Womens Christian Covington Jersey , which remains vacant.“The fact that they interviewed two outstanding candidates and chose not to make a decision
after not being able to get their first choice, to me is a concern in the fact
that it does circumvent the spirit of the Rooney Rule,” Graves said. “And if
there are other reasons why those candidates are not appealing, then we’d like
to know how we can help to possibly bring others to the table. I think there are
many others out there who are qualified and who deserve an opportunity to be
interviewed.”Graves points to what has become a common refrain about the Rooney
Rule: NFL teams have all agreed to abide by its letter, but many teams have
circumvented its spirit.
