Finally, we come to the first real football of the year. If you stand back or watch the game from 20,000 feet, it was one of the most entertaining games of the season. There was a lot of scoring, but also some defensive plays. The closer you get to the action, the more nervous you get. But if sport is supposed to be entertainment first, then both teams did a great job.

In this article, we’ll look at the final numbers from the game. Which numbers are a better predictor of success and failure? Hopefully, by the end of the season, we’ll have a better idea. Of course, the other part of this article is to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the game. Yes, the Houston Texans won 29-27, but as a wise old coach once said, you can’t ignore in victory what you wouldn’t ignore in defeat.

The numbers

Total yards: Texans – 417, Colts – 303
Rushing Yards: Texans – 40/213, Colts – 22/104
Passing yards: Texans – 36/204, Colts – 21/199
Bags: Texans 2, Colts 4
Turnover: Texans 0, Colts 1
Penalties: Texans 5/30, Colts 4/20
Time of possession: Texans 40:00, Colts 20:00

It’s not often you see such a lopsided time of possession disparity. The Texans ran 76 plays, while the Indianapolis Colts ran just 43. Of course, the Colts gained over 300 yards on those 43 plays. The Texans averaged 5.5 yards per play, while the Colts averaged 7.0 yards per play. This was a classic case of the Texans owning the football and moving the chains consistently. The Texans had 26 first downs to the Colts’ 14. Of course, we’ll get to the whys and what-fors in a moment.

The good

Simply put, this was the best single performance by a Texans running back since Lamar Miller’s Monday Night performance against the Miami Dolphins. Devin Singletary came close against the Bengals last season, but Mixon is the real deal. This was different. In the fourth quarter, the Colts knew it was coming and they couldn’t stop it. The Texans offense literally ran out the clock and the Colts still hadn’t stopped it.

The Texans also mixed in some wide receiver running as Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell combined for three carries and 25 yards. Dameon Pierce also had three strong carries for 16 yards. 200 yards rushing is completely uncharacteristic of a Texans team going back to the Arian Foster days. I don’t think we’ll see that every week. This will most likely be a true game plan offense (and not as Bill O’Brien described it) with a new hero emerging each week. However, it’s good to know they’re capable of it if a similar game is on their schedule.

The bad

Fans will criticize you more Monday morning about game management than anything else. I don’t know what the hell was going on at the end of the first half, and I don’t know if anyone in that building knew. Either Dalton Schultz caught a pass or he didn’t. The officials couldn’t figure it out. Then they said there were 15 seconds after the catch. Then they said there were five, but the Colts called a timeout. But the timeout didn’t count.

Let’s ignore all that for a moment and assume the clock started on the play. Why do you have your offense there? I assume they thought it was actually 15 seconds. I can forgive the coaches for not having a clue what the refs were talking about. Those three missed points could have been huge if the Colts had gotten the ball back at the end of the game.

The ugly

Why did the Colts average seven yards per play? Simply put, the Colts gained more than half of their yards on three plays. One of those was an absolutely brilliant throw and catch when the receiver was draped by the Texans defender. The other two were missed coverages. Then there were two or three other times when the Texans defensive backs missed coverage and would have been burned by a more accurate quarterback.

Additionally, this was not an extremely talented wide receiver group the Texans were playing. Part of that was inexperience at corner and one safety. Part of that was poor communication between some guys on the back end. A lot of it was just bad football. Caleb Williams isn’t going to miss some of the throws that Richardson missed and the Bears wideouts are much more talented. That needs to be cleaned up quickly.