The Colts' mission to win their first Week 1 game since 2013 will have to wait another year as they fell to the Texans in a back-and-forth 29-27 opening day defeat.
“This is the NFL, right?” head coach Shane Steichen said after the game, discussing how fine the margin of error is at this level. “You saw it [today], you saw it on Thursday…It’s going to be like this a lot.”
In the end, the Colts just didn’t make plays required to win the one-score contest.
“We gotta make the plays in the critical moments,” Steichen said. “Both offensively, defensively, to make the plays in the critical situations to go win those things.”
Missed opportunities were a theme throughout the 60 minutes, starting with the Colts’ opening drive. Having crossed midfield and moving the ball effectively, Anthony Richardson found himself in a fourth-and-short situation. He sailed a pass for rookie AD Mitchell, the first of multiple missed chances between the two — the biggest of which cost the Colts six points with Richardson overshooting Mitchell in the end zone.
“I gotta hit those,” Richardson said. “He did a great job getting open, I just gotta give him the ball so he can make his plays.”
Mitchell had just one catch for two yards on five targets.
“Obviously, he’d love to have those back,” Steichen said. “Just like every quarterback in the league, he’s going to miss some throws.”
Steichen said they’ll look at the tape and get it cleaned up.
On the whole, the offensive performance seemed like enough to win the game. They rode the Richardson roller coaster, who totalled three touchdowns despite being just 9-for-19 passing. His explosive passing ability was on display as Alec Pierce and Ashton Dulin both scored from beyond 50 yards.
But the defense couldn’t pay them back, failing to make plays when required. Not even a blocked punt on special teams, setting the offense up on the Houston 5-yard line, could make up for the lack of execution by Gus Bradley’s unit.
While Indy’s defensive line recorded four sacks, Houston’s run game proved to be too much for them. Averaging 5.3 yards per attempt, the Texans totalled 213 yards on the ground — 159 of those belonging to Joe Mixon, the most allowed to a single player by the Colts since Derrick Henry in 2020.
For every good play made up front, the defense would give up a frustrating chunk of yardage on the next snap.
“Everybody is gonna want to have plays back,” Steichen said.
Inconsistency popped up regularly, something the head coach wants to see cleaned up.
“Consistency. That’s what we’re looking for, week in and week out,” Steichen said as he remains confident in the players he has up front. “I’ve got a lot of faith in those guys.”
The Colts’ wait for a 1-0 start will have to wait another year. But they’ve been here before. Steichen there’s still a lot of football left to be played.
“We got 16 guaranteed [games] left,” Steichen said. “We’re taking it one week at a time.”
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