RECAP
Per the Madden Preview, the second meeting of the Texans and Colts was a shootout that came down to the wire, just as the real game is as expected to be. Two great offenses matching up against statistically poor and strategically porous defenses, led to a high scoring affair with Manning and Schaub throwing collectively for more than 700 yards and 8 touchdowns. After a slow 1st Quarter, Arian Foster is able to consistently get things going throughout the rest of the game, bust a few big runs and grow his game yardage total to more than 125 yards.
Although Peyton Manning was able to put up big numbers, the Texans defense was able to make the stops and big plays when they were needed. What was really impressive is the play of the Texans linebacking core. Cushing does extremely well at middle linebacker and Kevin Bentley was making tackles all over the field. Xavier Adibi recovers a fumble in the 4th quarter and scampers 60 yards for a defensive touchdown.
The Texans special teams kick coverage also shows significant improvement over in this game forcing the Colts to start most of their drives in pretty poor field position. The Colts attempted to run Donald Brown quite a bit more than I had expected them too, but Cushing is in his face nearly every time.
Manning wastes no time incorporating Dallas Clark's replacement Jacob Tamme into the offense hitting him three times on the Colts first drive. Even though he is without Clark, Collie, Gonzalez and Addai, Manning makes the best of things connecting to Tamme and Pierre Garcon.
The story of the game however, was the Matt Schaub-Andre Johnson connection. The Texans two superstars connected 11 times for 218 yards and two scores - one of which was an amazing diving catch in the back of the end zone. This tandem supplemented with a strong Texans running game was the recipe for success for the Texans in this match-up. As expected, Derrick Ward sees more touches and really helps to keep Foster fresh throughout the game.
The ending of the game was quite exciting. The Texans Defense makes a huge stop to get the ball back leading by a touchdown and only 2:27 left int the game. After a three and out, however, they are forced to punt the ball back to the Colts who are able to tie the game on a Manning to Garcon 19 yard pass with only 0:35 left. After getting the ensuing kickoff with 3 timeouts and only 0:32 seconds left, the Matt Schaub throws a 64 yard bomb to a wide open Andre Johnson for the Texans to take the final lead with 0:18 left in the game. Just as the Chiefs game ended, the Texans record a sack on Peyton Manning in the final play of the game.
Box Score
| Passing | |||||
| Player | Team | Att/Comp | Yards | TD | Int |
| Schaub | Texans | 22 of 30 | 327 | 3 | 2 |
| Manning | Colts | 24 of 35 | 379 | 5 | 0 |
| Rushing | |||||
| Player | Team | Att | Yards | AVG | TD |
| Foster | Texans | 27 | 131 | 4.8 | 2 |
| Brown | Colts | 20 | 75 | 3.7 | 0 |
| Ward | Texans | 7 | 46 | 6.5 | 0 |
| Receiving | |||||
| Player | Team | Rec | Yards | AVG | TD |
| A.Johnson | Texans | 11 | 218 | 19.8 | 3 |
| Garcon | Colts | 8 | 121 | 15.1 | 2 |
| Tamme | Colts | 5 | 67 | 13.4 | 1 |
| Jones | Texans | 4 | 41 | 10.2 | 0 |
| Wayne | Colts | 3 | 123 | 41.0 | 1 |
| White | Colts | 3 | 39 | 13.0 | 0 |
| Hart | Colts | 2 | -1 | -.5 | 0 |
| Walter | Texans | 2 | 9 | 4.5 | 0 |
| Leach | Texans | 2 | 33 | 16.5 | 0 |
| Brown | Colts | 2 | 11 | 5.5 | 1 |
| Dreessen | Texans | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 |
| Daniels | Texans | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 |
| Foster | Texans | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 |
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