It’s time for the amfoo.de top game.
There were a few games that deserved to have this spot, but we decided to give it to the Indianapolis-Houston game. The starting position before the game was clear: the winner is definitely in the playoffs, the loser is definitely out. The winner can even dream of winning the AFC South, provided Jacksonville fails against Tennessee.
Indianapolis got the ball first and was able to build a nice attack for more than five and a half minutes, Matt Gay then scored a field goal from 38 yards. 3-0 Indianapolis.
Houston needed exactly one play for its first attack and then CJ Stroud simply threw a pass over 75 yards to Nico Collins for a touchdown. 7: 3 for the Texans.
Anyone who dreamed of offensive fireworks was initially disappointed. Indianapolis had to leave the field after three attempts; the Texans were able to stay on the field for four minutes but were unable to take anything that counted. They quickly sent Indianapolis off the field, but then had to punt themselves. Both teams had a problem. Indianapolis was just really bad on the third attempt and didn’t get anything going. Although Houston played nicer football, they kept looking themselves in the foot because they allowed themselves an incredible number of penalties.
The second quarter began with an unsuccessful attack by Indianapolis. But the Texans’ next attack doesn’t work either. The Colts had to leave the field after three attempts. And then Houston finally managed an attack lasting four and a half minutes, at the end of which CJ Stroud was able to serve Andrew Beck for a yard. touchdown for Houston 14 to 3.
Indianapolis managed to build up a quick attack for just over a minute before halftime, which ended with a successful field goal. Matt Gay scored from 52 yards. Only 6-14 left. The Houston Texans’ last attack before the break yielded nothing and Houston went into the break with a lead of 14 to 6.
The Texans’ first attack after the break was not successful. And Indianapolis punished that, Jonathan Taylor ran 49 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. And it got even worse from Houston, because the 2 point conversion was also successful. 14 to 14. Houston now had to leave the field after three attempts. Indianapolis fought its way into field goal position, but Matt Gay failed from 57 yards.
Houston also managed to get into field goal position and Ka’imi Fairbain did better than his colleague and scored from 51 yards for a 17 to 14 lead. Indianapolis now started a long attack that continued into the last quarter and ended with a successful field goal from 35 yards by Matt Gay. 17: 17. Now it was a thrilling game, Houston got the ball and built an attack that lasted seven minutes on, which was crowned by a three-yard run by Devin Singletary for a touchdown. 23 to 17 for Houston. But there was still more than enough time, Indianapolis still had 6 minutes and 20 seconds. And little by little they fought their way up to the Houston 15. And on the fourth attempt, Gardner Minshew tried to gain the one yard for a new first down by passing to Tyler Goodson, but he dropped the ball. It was the tragic drop that ended Indianapolis’ season. Indianapolis managed to push Houston back so far that a safety jumped out, but that only brought two points to make it 19 to 23. With one second, Indianapolis got the ball again and tried a trick play, but it was quickly stopped.
The Colts are out. Before the season, not many people would have expected a place in the playoffs, but when you’re so close, it’s obviously very bitter. The running game was really good with 227, Jonathan Taylor had an outstanding game with 30 runs for 188 yards and a touchdown. The big problem was the third attempt, only one out of eleven worked. Gardner Minshew didn’t have a particularly good game and was 13 of 24 for 141 yards. EJ Speed was able to impress again and got 10 tackles.
Houston actually did it and is in the playoffs. And if Jacksonville loses today, they’ll even win the division. Nevertheless, Houston urgently needs to work on two things: firstly, 227 yards allowed through the run are far too many, and the defense was completely overwhelmed against Taylor. Second, you usually can’t win a game by taking 11 penalties. Especially in the first half, it felt like there was no attack, and the Houston Texans didn’t have at least one penalty. CJ Stroud had a great game and was 20 of 26 for two touchdowns and 264 yards. Nico Collins caught 9 balls for 195 yards and a touchdown.
The season is over for Indianapolis, Houston has at least one more game, but doesn’t know yet whether that will be home or away.
2024-01-07 15:33:58
#Indianapolis #Colts #Houston #Texans
