EVERYONE’S A WINNER
Reich’s OT gamble helped Texans salvage season, set tone for Colts’ aggressive style
I remember thinking, “What in the heck is Frank Reich doing?”
Andrew Luck suddenly looking human.
Silence inside a blue-andwhite-drenched stadium. Cheers, screams and shocking joy inside the Texans’ buzzing locker room.
Then the first win — finally — becoming nine straight, a season saved, and Bill O’Brien’s resilient 2018 team gradually looking like a playoff team.
All because of the Colts coach’s crazy fourth-and-4 call with just 24 seconds left in overtime and the scoreboard 99.99 percent forever locked at 34-34.
It ended up as 37-34 Texans at :00 thanks to Reich, Luck, Johnathan Joseph, Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, Ka’imi Fairbairn and O’Brien. It was the call that instantly changed two long seasons, ultimately resurrected both the Texans and Indianapolis Colts, and pushed O’Brien’s squad to the AFC South title and home-field advantage for Saturday’s wild-card matchup.
If Indy simply ties way back in Week 4, the Colts are 10-5-1 and hosting a playoff game.
If Luck hits Chester Rogers for a first down on fourth-and-4, maybe Indy wins, the Texans fall to a depressing 0-4, and local fans are screaming for a coaching change for Week 5.
The Texans found a way for the first time, and now we’re here.
“We’re sitting there at 0-3, and we just kept telling ourselves, ‘All we need is one. We just have to win one game,’ ” defensive end J.J. Watt said this week at NRG Stadium. “We didn’t have to try and get back all three games we lost; we just needed to win one. Even in that game, we just had to find a way to win it. It was an unconventional way to win it, to say the least, but we found a way to do it. After that game was the first tweet I sent out with ‘Find a way.’ I didn’t realize that they would all be kind of like that and we’d have to find a way every time, but that’s just the way it worked out.”
It was 7-0 Indianapolis. Then 14-7 Texans. Then 28-10 Texans as O’Brien’s squad finally began to deliver on the firepower that was teased all offseason.
Of course, this being the 2018 Texans, it was eventually 31-all at the end of regulation as Luck torched Romeo Crennel’s defense for the first of two regularseason burnings and Reich’s offense unleashed 21 second-half points.
Luck completed 40 of 62 passes for 464 yards, four touchdowns and a 108.5 rating. Watson connected on 29 of 42 for 375 yards, two TDs, an interception and a 102.8 rating. Hopkins collected 10 passes for 169 yards. T.Y. Hilton amassed 115 yards on just four receptions. There were 58 combined first downs, 71 points, 18 third-down conversions and 944 total offensive yards on 29 drives.
It wasn’t Chiefs-Rams on “Thursday Night Football” and the tease of a potential Super Bowl LIII pairing. But it was the eventual setup for Colts-Texans III and reminded both fan bases that two teams coming off fourwin seasons in 2017 were still worth watching this season.
“It was a great football game. It came down to that situation, overtime. But there were a lot of plays that led up to that,” O’Brien said. “I do think at that point in time we needed a win. I don’t think anybody around here wanted to go to 0-4. We needed a win, and we had to find a way, and we were able to find a way. It was a great game.” Instilling confidence
Reich choked at the end of Week 4, giving away a tie that could have turned into a Colts division title.
Reich also knows a few things about monumental comebacks, and it can easily be argued that Indy’s first-year coach turned 1-5 into 10-6 and the playoffs by refusing to be conservative in 2018.
“I think it was all part of our identity and who we are. I think we all embraced it,” Reich said this week. “Everyone knew that was the mode we were going to be in before this season started. It didn’t work out there, and we lost that game, but there were two or three other games later in the season that those kinds of calls and that kind of aggressive nature did pay off for wins in critical situations.
“That’s what you trust and believe. That’s what you live and die with each week. Those are the decisions that you have to make — the confidence that you put in yourself and your players — and that’s the belief that you have to have.”
After all the surgeries, missed games, rumors and lingering questions about his football future, Luck was clearly back.
The Texans were reminded just how special Watson could be.
He was sacked seven times for 28 yards. He threw a pick. But the second-year QB refused to relent, and as soon as Indy foolishly gave the ball back to the Texans late in OT at the Colts’ 43-yard line, a 24-yard connection to Hopkins followed.
It became the theme of the Texans’ 11-win season: If seconds were still ticking, Watson would find a way.
“I thought we were going to win it regardless of the situation. If they were going to punt it, we had time on the clock,” he said. “Whenever time is on the clock and the ball is in my hands or in our hands on offense, even when the defense is out there, we’re a confident bunch. We never go out there thinking we are going to lose.
“We always kind of continue to have that juice and that mindset. So regardless of the situation or what they would’ve done, just give us a chance, and we’re going to go out there and put the game away. This just gave us a better opportunity: shorter field to hit one play for Hop and kick the field goal.” 'A defining moment'
The Texans’ world opened up after Fairbairn’s 37-yard kick.
They fought and survived, winning 11 games for just the second time in franchise history and capturing their third AFC South title in four seasons. They nearly ended up with a firstround bye and were guaranteed a home postseason game for the first time since Brock Osweiler was their QB.
The wild-card reward: trying to stop Luck and Hilton for the first time this season and finding a way again against a Colts team that believes more than ever in Reich.
“It was just a defining moment, as far as where we were headed to and what we could do — understanding who we were as a team,” Texans linebacker Whitney Mercilus said. “We were just a team that doesn’t quit, and we’re going play every second, every minute. You’re going to get the best of us.”
The Texans aren’t here without Reich’s crazy overtime decision.
Neither are the Colts.