Texans fall short, lose grip on division
INDIANAPOLIS — Jacoby Brissett threw a career-high four touchdown passes Sunday and the Indianapolis Colts sealed a 30-23 victory over the Houston Texans with Darius Leonard’s late interception.
Indy (4-2) has won three straight in the series and took over the early season lead in the AFC South.
The loss snapped Houston’s twogame winning streak.
Brissett was masterful most of the day. He was 26 of 39 with 326 yards, and in a game the Colts only produced 62 yards rushing, they needed Brissett to be at his best — and he was.
Brissett opened the scoring with an 11-yard TD pass to Zach Pascal on Indy’s first series.
The Texans (4-3) answered with two field goals, the second coming after Deshaun Watson appeared to find DeAndre Hopkins for a touchdown pass with Justin Houston draped around Watson’s legs. But the officials ruled Watson was in the grasp, nullifying the subsequent throw.
Brissett, who set up the Texans’ second score with a fumble deep in Colts territory, then threw a nifty 2-yard TD pass to T.Y. Hilton with 1:49 left in the half.
That gave Houston just enough time to drive for another short field goal to make it 14-9. But, Indy re-established the two-score lead when a replay review reversed the call on the field of an incomplete pass to give Brissett a 4-yard TD toss to Eric Ebron.
Houston finally got in the end zone when Keke Coutee scored on a 4-yard run that caught the Colts off guard.
But Brissett took advantage of three defensive penalties on the series before capitalizing with a 3-yard TD pass to Pascal that made it 28-16 with 1:14 left in the third quarter.
Watson gave the Texans one more chance with an 8-yard TD pass to Hopkins with 6:38 left.
Texans punter Brian Anger stepped out of the end zone for a safety with less than three minutes remaining before the Colts closed it out with Leonard’s interception in the final seconds.
Watson was 23 of 34 with 308 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Hopkins had nine receptions for 106 yards and Kenny Stills caught four passes for 105 yards.
Pascal had six catches for 106 yards, while Hilton had six catches for 74 yards.