The Houston Texans faced the Indianapolis Colts in a rematch on Sunday. The teams went into the game with inverse records on the season. The Texas were 4-9 and the Colts were 9-4. With less than two minutes to go in the 4th quarter the score was tied up at 20 apiece. Zach Pascal of the Colts pulled off a 5-yard TD reception which put the Colts ahead. However, there was still some time on the clock which meant the Texans could potentially make something happen. When you have a quarterback like Deshaun Watson on your side, nothing is impossible. With just under 30 seconds Watson read the defense and threw a beeline pass to KeKe Coutee who caught the pass. Unfortunately, Colts player Darius Leonard punched the ball out of his hands and Coutee wasn’t able to hold onto the ball as he stumbled into the end-zone while taking multiple hits. The Colts recovered the ball and won the game 27-20.
Texans Interim Head Coach Romeo Crennel discussed postgame what it has been like being so close to staying in the game or winning and then turning the ball over. He said, “It’s hard. It’s difficult, but we were there and really we had a chance to win in both instances and in both instances we were not able to get the ball into the end zone to win the game or to put ourselves in position to win the game this week. But the guys fought hard, they came back, they were down and they just, they didn’t quit. They kept playing and kept playing and then there they were at the end with the possibility of winning, so that’s what you have to do in this game. You have to keep fighting, keep playing and give yourself a chance to win, so I thought that that’s what we did today.”
Crennel went on to say what he told his players after another heartbreaking loss. He said, “…I told them that the way that they fought because we talked about it the night before of playing every play and putting plays behind us and then playing the next play, and I thought that they did that today. They came out and they fought, and they kept playing and we had a chance to win. If they will continue to do that these next few weeks, we will see how it falls out, but that gives us the best chance for them to play hard every play all the way through the game.”
The man of the hour, Watson, who remains on the precipice of a win, talked about losing another close game saying, “It’s tough, but I’m not going to lose my faith. I’m not going to lose my spirits in this organization and what we can do. My confidence and my level of play and leadership is going to continue to grow and just charge it to the game. It’s part of life, it’s part of the career and nobody wants this to happen, but you just have to go through tough times before you get to the brighter ones.”
The next matchup for the Texans will be against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.