INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Houston Texans have been here before — sitting 0-3 with a sputtering offense and the critics growing louder.
When it happened last season, they responded by going 12-2 to become the seventh team in league history to start a season with three straight losses and still make the playoffs.
This time feels different.
Star wide receiver Nico Collins has missed two straight games with a hamstring injury, C.J. Stroud is completing just
60% of his throws and the ground game is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. And on Sunday, against the NFL's worst ranked defense, the Texans finished with just 223 total yards in a 19-17 loss at Indianapolis.
“The pieces are there, the fight is there, we know we can get this thing turned around, but it's on us to do that,” Stroud said. “This is something we've learned from in the past, so our goal will be to come out of it as a better team.”
It was hard to imagine in the immediate aftermath of a second straight dismal game. After scoring 31 points in a season-opening loss to the Buffalo Bills, Houston has scored 23 total points against Cincinnati and an Indy team that had been allowing 37 points per game.
The Colts (1-2) came in with a nine-game losing streak, the league's longest active skid, and with five straight losses in this series. But Indy ended both with one solid performance.
How bad was Houston?
On their first seven possessions, the Texans punted five times, endured four three-and-outs and two four-and-outs, including a fourth-down stop at the Colts 31-yard line on their second drive of the game.
Houston entered the third quarter with just 81 yards of total offense and had a replay review not overturned a fumbled kickoff the Colts recovered at the Texans 28-yard line, those numbers might have been even worse. Stroud managed to take advantage of that second chance by leading Houston on its only scoring drive of the first three-plus quarters.
“Defensively, (Indy) did a good job getting off the field on third down and we weren't able to sustain drives,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “O and 3, that's where we're at right now. It's not good enough from our perspective.”
But until Sunday, the Colts' defense couldn't anything right.
Indy entered Week 3 ranked last in the league in points allowed, yards allowed, yards per play and yards passing. The Colts were 31st in run defense and had given up the second-highest total yards total in NFL history (1,029) through two games, trailing only the 2016 Oakland Raiders.
And yet despite drawing just two penalties while getting three turnovers and four sacks from the defense, Houston's offense still stalled. Indy ran 20 more plays, had an 11-minute advantage in time of possession and held Houston to 70 yards rushing on 21 carries.
Now, they must try to find a fix before hosting cross-state rival Dallas — or risk falling to 0-3 at home, too.
“You can call me crazy, we've been here before,” Stroud said. “There are no excuses in this league. No one cares about what happened or how it happened, they just want to see if you won or lost.
"But we know who we are, we know what we have in the locker room.”
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