The 10-6 Indianapolis Colts will travel to Houston to take on the 11-5 Texans on Saturday for the first of 4 games this Wild Card weekend. Both teams still had something to play for last week and earned big victories. The Colts beat the Titans in Tennessee 33-17. The winner advanced while the loser went home and the Colts earned the 6th and final seed in the AFC. The Texans solidified the first seed in the AFC with a 20-3 home victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. They started the year 0-3 but went 11-2 the rest of the way.
Andrew Luck continued his comeback season with another good performance last week as he finished with a passer rating of 109.8 against the Titans. He Completed 24 of 35 passes for 285 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Luck finished second in the league this season with 39 touchdown passes and 5th in passing yards with 4,593. His favorite target last week was Dontrelle Inman who had 5 catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. Eric Ebron had 4 catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. Ebron is tied for second in the league with 13 touchdown receptions this year. The team had success running the ball also as they gained 158 yards on 36 carries, which is an average of 4.4 yards per run. For the season, the Colts offense finished 5th in the league with 27.1 points per game. Defensively, they forced 3 turnovers with 2 interceptions and a fumble recovery. On the year, their defense finished 11th by allowing 339 yards per game.
Houston’s defense shined against the Jaguars allowing just 137 yards of total offense. They intercepted Blake Bortles once and recovered a fumble. Against the run, they allowed the Jaguars to gain just 30 yards on 16 carries, which is an average of just 1.9 yards per rush. They also had 3 sacks and 7 tackles for losses. Their defense ranked 4th this season with 29.8 points allowed per game. Offensively, DeShaun Watson finished with a passer rating of 89.5 as he completed 25 of 35 passes for 234 yards, 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. If there was a negative for the offense, they allowed Watson to be sacked 6 times. The Texans offense finished 11th this season as they have averaged 25.1 points per game.
Houston will have home field advantage and are favored by 1.5 points. They have gone 7-7-2 against the spread this year including 4-4 at home. While they have gone 11-2 since their 0-3 start, both losses have come in their last 4 games. The Colts have gone 8-7-1 against the spread including 5-3 on the road. The Colts have the momentum as they have won 9 of their past 10 games including the last 4 in a row. These teams have met twice this season with the road team winning each time by just 3 points. They last met in week 14 with the Colts winning 24-21.
