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The Indianapolis Colts faltered in a season-opener yet again, but came away with a tie after erasing a 20-3 deficit against the Houston Texans in Week 1 of the 2022-23 NFL season.
The Colts offense sputtered throughout the first three quarters, but came alive in the fourth to force overtime.
Neither team managed to score in additional time, meaning the Houston Texans walked away with their first-ever tie in franchise history.
On that note, here are three talking points from the game:
#1 O.J. Howard got his moment of redemption
This must have been a great moment for Howard. Back in the 2017 draft, I had the former Alabama tight end at the top of his position and as my eighth overall prospect.
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Like many others, I questioned the lack of usage in the passing game, based on the athletic skill set and flashes he showed when more prominently featured, with over 300 yards and three touchdowns across the Crimson Tide’s two national championship matchups with Clemson.
Combining that with the work he put in as a blocker and this was a pretty complete player. His best moments as a pass-catcher seemed to be ahead of him, after being drafted 19th overall by the Buccaneers.
Unfortunately, that never quite manifested itself. Howard averaged just under 500 yards and scored 12 total touchdowns through his first three years, but was lost four games into 2020 with a ruptured Achilles. He played a career-low 31% of snaps last season, behind Rob Gronkowski, as Tampa Bay moved to more 11-personnel sets.
Buffalo signed him this offseason on a fully guaranteed one-year, $3.5 million deal, but decided to cut him and take on sizable dead cap number. So just 10 days before their opening game, Howard signed another one-year deal for just over a million bucks with the Texans.
Against the Colts, he caught two touchdown passes of 16 and 20 yards respectively, both on seam routes. Those were his only catches on the day.
#2 The one thing Frank Reich still really needs to figure out as a coach is red-zone playcalling
These are always tough topics, because we don’t have the background information on how involved Indianapolis’ de facto offensive coordinator Marcus Brady is in designing red-zone plays and what’s on the menu in the first place.
Last season, the Colts finished 20th in red-zone conversion at 56.3% despite having the league’s touchdown leader in Jonathan Taylor. On Sunday against the Texans, they went two-of-five in terms of TDs on those possessions, including a full-house wildcat play with Nyheim Hines at QB on fourth-and-goal from the two.
Later, when they were down 20-6 with 11 minutes left in regulation, they had another three attempts from inside the five. They ran a slant-flat concept out of trips with a safety on number three who nearly picked off a pass when the receiver was led right into him.
Ashton Dulin then did drop a seam route at the back-line, but on third down they called another concept out of that set, with the tight end running a curl and a couple of in-breakers. That had no chance and Matt Ryan went to the back-side instead, where Alec Pierce ran a somewhat rounded speed out, before redirecting inside and having the ball knocked away at the end.
When they got down to Houston’s 15-yard line, Michael Pittman Jr. made his corner miss off an out route and was able to dive into the end-zone, to make the score 20-20.
And then of course when they got down to the opposing 16 in overtime, with a chance win it, they lost four yards on consecutive plays, on a TFL from a shotgun handoff and then Matt Ryan taking a sack on a naked bootleg, which led to a 42-yard field goal miss. As a result, their kicker Rodrigo Blankenship was waived.
#3 The Texans defense may not have a lot of household names, but one rookie and veteran stood out
Since I just mentioned that third-and-goal pass to Alec Pierce, guess who was able to flip around with him and rake through the fellow rookie receiver’s hands? That’s right – Derek Stingley Jr.
He is already playing like a legit boundary corner in a limited sample size and I think he’ll be that guy for several years. The third overall pick out of LSU played 43 preseason snaps and was targeted just twice, allowing one of those to be completed for 22 yards.
He routinely stayed in phase throughout routes. While his official coverage numbers on Sunday appeared to be sub-par, looking at how much deep responsibility he had and the fact he’s still learning to squeeze down routes in front of him, the moments we did see him in tight coverage were very encouraging.
On the other end, the veteran I referenced here, of course, is Jerry Hughes, who actually started his career in Indianapolis, before becoming one of the more underrated edge rushers in the league for nearly a decade in Buffalo.
On his return to Lucas Oil Stadium as a Texan, he recorded the team’s only two sacks on the day, along with a couple other hits on Matty Ice, a pass batted down at the line and of course the interception on a screen pass, which set up Houston’s first touchdown of the game.
His juice off the ball really stood out and he was able to take advantage of tackles getting too tall in their pass sets.
