Houston Texans: 3 reasons why the winning streak ended vs the Colts
By T.A. Mock
The Colts took away the Texans rushing attack
Weeks seven through twelve saw the Houston Texans sport the league’s best rushing attack. During those six games, Houston ran for just over 1,000 yards, bringing their season total to over 1,600 yards. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the third-best rushing offense in the league coming into a game against the league’s 12th best rushing defense. The Texans seemed to have the advantage.
Instead, an offense that averaged 141 yards per game and 4.5 yards an attempt was held to only 89 yards and 3.6 yards per attempt. Props to the Colts for doing what many other teams could not do but this was very unexpected as this powerful rushing attack has been a key driving force behind the nine-game winning streak.
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The Colts main mission in slowing the Texans rushing attack was stopping Lamar Miller and they were able to do so successfully. Miller was, and maybe still is on his way to the best season of his career. Through twelve games, he had 876 yards, an average of 79.6 per game. He was also averaging five yards per rush.
After the loss to the Colts, those averages will fall and while he will likely still breach the 1,000 yard milestone, it may not end up being his best season ever. The Colts held Miller to only 33 yards on 14 rushes for an abysmal average of 2.4 yards per carry.
This again exposed the fact that the Houston Texans offensive line is subpar. They’re going to need to figure this out against some lesser opponents the final few weeks of the season. The offense is much more dominant when the running game is working. It also opens up the play action passing game, which has been extremely effective recently.