Through the first five weeks of the season, the Indianapolis Colts were sitting at 4-1 and looking even better than anyone thought they would. Daniel Jones was playing incredible football and Jonathan Taylor was on fire at running back. Meanwhile, in Houston, the defending AFC South champion Houston Texans were 2-3 through five games and plenty looked at them and wondered what was going on. The defense was good, but the offense was lacking consistency. Fast forward to after Week 12, and the Houston Texans have found a way to win three straight games, while the Indianapolis Colts have lost two of their last three. The Texans' overall record is 6-5, and they are sitting in third place, behind the Jacksonville Jaguars at 7-4 and the Colts in first at 8-3. With that being said, some don’t see the Texans coming back on the Colts. But that is a possibility.
The Texans did not have a good start, but they have a chance for a strong finish. Their next two games are against the division-leading Colts and a Kansas City Chiefs team in desperation mode, but after that, things get easier. They will face the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders at home, both of whom have not been playing well. Then they take on the Los Angeles Chargers on the road, which they are without both starting offensive tackles and got beat by the Jaguars 35-6 in Week 12 action, and they finish the season against the Colts again. The schedule gave the Texans ample opportunity to come back and win the AFC South, but it is up to them to take advantage on both sides of the ball.
The Colts, as mentioned previously, face the Texans twice to close out the season, a team with arguably the best defense in the NFL. But the Texans aren’t the only division foe the Colts have to see down the stretch. The Colts face the Jaguars, who would be a playoff team if the playoffs started today, and the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers in back-to-back weeks. Seems like a daunting task for a team that has beaten the teams they are supposed to beat and lost to teams that they were in the game with. Either way it goes, facing two teams from one of the toughest divisions in the NFL to end the season, along with some divisional competition, can make it tougher for Indianapolis to get into the playoffs.
A lead that once seemed insurmountable to some has now become one that the Texans have closed ground on. And despite being listed as third place, they could stay hot and continue to rise up the division, while the Colts may have some missteps happen along their way. It’s going to be fun to see how each team performs down the stretch, but I would not count the Texans out of the division race just yet.