subject: NFL - After their Bye Week, Houston visits Indianapolis on Monday Night Football [print this page] NFL - After their Bye Week, Houston visits Indianapolis on Monday Night Football
NFL - After their Bye Week, Houston visits Indianapolis on Monday Night Football
Indianapolis is winless against division rivals and needs a win versus Houston to climb to the second place of AFC South.
A really tight game ahead is what can be expected from the clash between division rivals Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans on Monday Night Football, as it will be a tie breaker for the second place of the AFC South, where both share a 4-2 record after Week 7. Monday's night game will also be the rematch of the season opener, where Houston defeated Indianapolis 34-24, the only team in the division that the Texans have played.
Both teams will begin the mid season fresh from Bye Week, and will have decisive games against division rivals in the next 10 matches before the playoffs, where obviating this one, Houston still has 4 (home and road versus Jacksonville and Tennessee), and Indianapolis has 3 (two against Tennessee and one home versus Jacksonville).
The Colt's will try to add one more victory to their two win strike, and continue showing their fans what this team is really made off, after losing key players product of misfortunate injuries. To the already know absences from Dallas, Clark and Austin Collie, Joseph Addai and Anthony Gonzalez have one leg on that list and one leg on the game, where they will be standing on Monday is still an unsolved question.
These injuries leave the Colts in a precarious situation when you look at the weight that these players have in their offense: with 44 receptions for 503 yards and six touchdowns, the Colts had found in Collie their second best Wide Receiver of the season. While Clark had 37 receptions for 347 yards and three touch downs, which had him as the leader of the Tight Ends.
Taking a glance at how both teams' quarterbacks where doing before the Bye Week, we find great news for the two of them: Matt Schaub from the Texans was named as the AFC Offensive Player of Week 6, joining teammates Arian Foster Week 1- and Andre Jonhson Week 2- as players that have received the recognition this season. Schaub has been passing for 64.5% for 1, 538 yards and 9 touchdowns. On his last game against Kansas City Chiefs he was able to guide his team to a 34-31 victory, where the Texans accomplished a come from behind win, overcoming a 10 point difference in the last quarter. He contributed with 25 passes for 305 yards and 2 touchdowns, and signed his second game without interceptions this season.
Payton Manning is pretty focused this season, and is avoiding all kinds of distractions including his contract extension, which he will not discuss until the end of the season. He has been throwing for 67.3%, for 1,916 yards and 13 touchdowns, plus the not despicable record of suffering only 2 interceptions so far. The biggest problem that he will face on Monday night will be finding solutions for Clark in teammates Jacob Tamme and Brody Eldridge.
The Texans find themselves with a division record of 1-0, and Indianapolis will try to invert their 0-2 situation against them. Although a loss will never be welcomed by any of them, it is still too early to draw a conclusion.
