Houston Texans

Offense: This could potentially be a tuneup game for the Colts or a true sign that the season is lost. The Texans offense is essentially down to their third string starter with Deshaun Watson out for legal issues and Tyrod Taylor on IR. Davis Mills looked like what you’d expect out of a third stringer getting thrown to the wolves in his first few starts but last week against the Patriots looked like your typical game manager type backup that has learned to trust the players around him. His arm strength isn’t the best but again, he threw 3 touchdowns last week and faces a Colts defense coming off a crushing loss on short rest. With Xavier Rhodes likely out for a concussion, Rock Ya-Sin will return from injury and start across from Isaiah Rodgers. The Colts should be able to clamp down on Houston’s running game which means the game will come down to the Colts being able to stop the pass. If that’s the case, this game could go either way. While Mills isn’t a top tier QB, he should keep Houston competitive by trusting his weapons as he did last week. The Colts pass rush has been too inconsistent for me to think they’ll have him running for his life for 4 quarters

Indianapolis Colts

Offense: The Colts offense had a good outing against Baltimore mostly due to the running game and the continued growth of Michael Pittman Jr. With the Texans secondary playing above expectations this season, the game plan should be centered on Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines whether they rush out of the backfield or catch passes as the LB corps is where Houston’s defense is weakest. By establishing the running backs, that will slow the opposing pass rush down so Carson Wentz can find receivers downfield.

Prediction: The Colts should win this one but I think Houston will play similarly to how they did against the Patriots last week and make this more unnecessarily competitive than it needs to be.

Colts 23, Texans 21