C.J. Stroud completed a 7-yard pass to Dalton Schultz at the Indianapolis 31-yard line in the closing seconds of the first half. In field-goal range, the Texans rushed the line and drove the ball in.

However, the officials stopped play at the exact moment the ball was caught to review Schultz’s catch.

The play stood, but then all hell broke loose.

Referee John Hussey announced that the clock would be reset to 15 seconds after the Texans snapped the ball with 18 seconds left on the previous down. The Colts then took a timeout to complain about the clock, at which point Hussey apparently gave the Colts back their timeout and figured there should be a 10-second runoff.

It was confusing, and Hussey’s announcements (or lack thereof) were confusing. The TV crew didn’t clean up the mess until the second half.

“We had to confirm that it was a catch, number one,” senior vice president of arbitration Perry Fewell said in a pool report. “Then we had to get the administration of the game correct. And so the umpire, from the administration standpoint, was told to set the clock to 15 seconds.

“We didn’t roll back the call, so we corrected the admin and the clock to five seconds.”

The Texans kept their offense on the field, apparently unaware that the clock was at five seconds and that they would start on Hussey’s signal. Stroud threw incomplete to end the half.

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans took responsibility in a sideline interview with CBS’s AJ Ross and again in his availability to the media after the game.

“It’s just us as coaches — starting with me — communicating from the sidelines,” Ryans said, via a team transcript.

The Colts’ timeout was listed on the NFL’s official play-by-play until postgame editing, when the timeout and the final play of the half — Stroud’s incomplete play — were removed. Colts coach Shane Steichen said he had no comment when asked about it after the game.

A time-out would mean that the clock would not start again until the ball was snapped.

“Week 1, everybody’s rusty,” Stroud said. “I’m rusty; we’re rusty as a whole. I think the officials told us one thing, but we got something else.”

The Texans led 12-7 at halftime, but could have had more as Ka’imi Fairbairn had already made field goals of 51 and 50 yards.

“I’ve got to get better there,” Stroud said. “That’s something we can definitely learn from.”

That didn’t matter, however, as the Texans won 29-27.