IndyStar Reports — The slogans painted on each sideline of cavernous Reliant Stadium exhorted the concept of “Play 60.” The Houston Texans covered the first 19 minutes Sunday. The Indianapolis Colts handled the final 41.
Down 17 points, the Colts stiff-armed the inevitable and roared back to win 35-27. They ran their record to 11-0 and maintained their advantage in the chase for the AFC’s No. 1 playoff seed at three games with five to play.
When Jacksonville fell 20-3 later in the afternoon at San Francisco, the Colts were AFC South champions for the sixth time in seven seasons and in the playoffs for an NFL-best eighth consecutive year.
Ho hum. For an NFL-record fifth successive week, the Colts dismissed a fourth-quarter deficit to win. After taking their previous four games by a total of 10 points, 35-27 qualified as a blowout
“These games build character,” said Colts defensive end
Robert Mathis, whose strip-sack of Texans quarterback Matt Schaub set up the clinching touchdown. “After four or five games like this, we’re full of character.”
The Colts scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. They scored 14 points in 15 seconds. That flurry of belly punches stunned the Texans (5-6) and the second-largest crowd in Reliant Stadium history. The hopes of 71,990 seemed to dissipate into the gray sky above the stadium’s yawning retractable roof.
“With this team,” said running back Joseph Addai, a Houston native who ran for 69 yards, “you never know what’s going to happen.”
The Colts’ 20th consecutive regular-season victory left them one short of New England’s NFL record set in 2006-08. The Colts are 15-1 against Houston since the Texans joined the league in 2002.
It didn’t look like it would go that way.
Houston scored on its first two possessions, a 7-yard pass from Schaub to fullback Vontae Leach and a 5-yard run by Chris Brown. It was 14-0. Schaub was 8-for-8 for 99 yards and the Texans had 150 yards in net offense to the Colts’ 1. After a Peyton Manning interception, Kris Brown’s 35-yard field goal made it 17-0 four minutes into the second quarter.
