Defense flops after stout start
Unit’s collapse influences Smith’s decision to take conservative route in last minute of overtime
It was fourth-and-3 at midfield with 20 seconds left in overtime, and Texans coach Lovie Smith had a decision to make.
He could go for it on fourth down, or he could take the safe route and punt to the Colts, knowing the game would likely result in a tie.
Smith chose the safe route and punted, and the Texans and Colts tied 20-20 on Sunday at NRG Stadium. “There’s a lot of football left to go in the season. It’s kind of as simple as that,” Smith said of his decision. “I felt like a tie was better than a potential loss. Defensively, we weren’t really stopping them an awful lot at the end.”
Smith added that he thought about going for it, but he knew the Colts would have time to score if the Texans didn’t convert on fourth down.
“At the time, it’s not like we were playing our best defense,” Smith said. “We were drained. We were gassed a little bit.”
Whether it was the right decision to settle for the tie or go for the win is debatable. Converting was no guarantee for the Texans’ offense, which hadn’t scored since the 7:16 mark of the third quarter.
But Smith, who took over as head coach this past offseason and still continues to calls the plays on defense, is right about one thing.
At that point in the game, the defense, which had played spectacularly through 3½ quarters, had lost its way. And it didn’t look likely that the Texans were going to stop the Colts' offense had Houston not converted on fourth down.
Take for instance, the Colts’ game-tying drive, which came after a Texans three-and-out. Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, a 2021 MVP candidate who had been held in check for most of the game, ran for 9 yards, 13 yards, 13 yards, and 14 yards on consecutive plays before quarterback Matt Ryan found wide receiver Michael Pittman open for a 15-yard touchdown pass with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The running holes that the Texans were once closing and were once hard to get through were now open for business. And Taylor found them time and time again.
Smith said that drive was the most disappointing defensive drive of the game. The Colts didn’t face a single third down.
“We just didn’t tackle well,” Smith said.
Taylor had 70 yards on nine carries in the fourth quarter. His success had a direct correlation on Ryan’s success, too. Ryan completed 10 of 17 passes for 132 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
All week, Smith had reminded his players about the whippings the Colts put on them twice last season, hoping to motivate them. The Colts outscored the Texans 62-3 in those games. Taylor torched them both times. The film from the games played in the locker room all day and every day.
And for 3½ quarters, perhaps that motivation worked. The Texans were tackling Taylor, getting pressure on Ryan.
The Texans led 20-3 in the fourth quarter. At that point, they had limited Ryan to 17of-26 passing for 159 yards and an interception and Taylor to 88 yards on 18 carries. They also forced two turnovers — an interception and a fumble.
And they should be credited with that.
But they still haven’t learned how to close games. And like last season, both the offense and defense unraveled in the end. Quarterback Davis Mills was sacked and fumbled in the fourth quarter, gifting the Colts an extra possession, and they took advantage of it.
They scored a touchdown four plays and two minutes later to pull within a touchdown.
The following drive, the Texans’ offense went three-andout, giving the Colts the ball back again with momentum.
The Colts, who ran 90 offensive plays and finished with 517 yards of total offense, did most of their damage in the fourth quarter. Theys also won the time of possession battle 39 minutes to 30.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to figure out how to come out with a win,” Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey said. “That’s something that’s unacceptable for us: to let the offense march down the field.”
The only positive that could come out of Sunday’s game was that it doesn’t end with a loss on the record. The Texans remain at .500 entering Week 2 against the Denver Broncos.
But the tie had most players bewildered. A few said it still felt like a loss, while others, like cornerback Desmond King and linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, said they didn’t know how to feel.
“It’s not what we wanted,” Pierre-Louis said. “It’s not much to celebrate about.”
jonathan.alexander@chron.com twitter.com/jonmalexander