What’s the difference between “Garbage Time” and a comeback attempt? The answer to that can be seen by contrasting our first game against the Colts in 2006 with our first game against them in 2007. Last year in their first meeting with the Colts we saw the game quickly fly out of reach of the Texans. That team wasn’t coming back under any circumstances. Down 30-3 going into the fourth quarter David Carr “led” the Texans to 21 meaningless fourth quarter points. Nobody with the slightest idea what was going on thought those were anything but “Garbage Time” points and stats. With the outcome long since decided the Texans were simply getting some much needed work in against the Colts second team defense. Some Texans fans didn’t see it that way at the time.

For weeks following that game we debated David Carr’s gaudy quarterback rating and many of us wondered if this was a sign that Gary Kubiak was getting through to him, a sign that Gary Kubiak was changing him for the better.

It wasn’t. David Carr was going nowhere last year and the coaches had already reached that conclusion by the time we did get a win against the Colts in the second to last game of the year.

Yesterday Matt Schaub was trying desperately to lead the Texans to 21 fourth quarter points but he wasn’t practicing against second stringers and adding meaningless completions to his stats. He was trying to win a game and if he’d had another couple of minutes he might very well have pulled it off.

Sunday we saw a Texans team playing hard to earn a comeback victory against long odds. That they fell short isn’t all that much of an issue in my mind. Certainly I would have liked to see them manage the upset, go to 3-0, and win their second game in a row against Indianapolis. What Texans fan wouldn’t have wanted to see that?

I hesitate to say I was satisfied with what I saw because clearly the Texans weren’t satisfied with the outcome. They were playing to win all day long. As coach Kubiak said after the game the Texans weren’t interested in moral victories. With that on record it seems like weak sauce to say that I was satisfied to see them show up, play hard, and come close to winning the game. I think that’s what they did. They came close to winning the game. I’m sure there some Colts fans out there who would take issue with that but it’s the plain truth. The Texans, with all their injuries and mistakes were one drive away from taking the lead. They simply ran out of time.

With 19 seconds on the clock they had the ball and the length of the field to go needing 6 points to tie and 7 to win. That they couldn’t manage it without Andre Johnson, Ahman Green, Ron Dayne, and Jacoby Jones doesn’t matter to me as much as you might think. The Colts are an amazing team to watch and sometimes I scratch my head and wonder who sold their soul to Satan for that kind of execution. That a team with an offense so good should also have a defense that’s got real teeth seems almost “unfair”. They’re so good that it makes your head spin and I don’t mean to take anything away from the Colts when I say that the Texans almost came back on them. To me it’s a testament to how tough our division has become. From top to bottom the AFC South can hang with any division in football.

The phrase “What if?” is either something you wonder about or absolutely meaningless to you. For me it is the kind of thing I think about for days after a game. I wonder what would have happened if Matt Schaub hadn’t thrown that interception following Jacoby Jones outstanding punt return. The Texans had 18 yards to go for 6 points but he did throw that interception so we’ll never know. I wonder what would have happened if the Texans had tried to make something happen with their last drive of the first half. They had 1:56 on the clock when they took possession of the ball at their own 38 yard line. Instead of attacking the Colts they went conservative and tried to eat the clock up. They wasted an opportunity in my opinion. They didn’t try to even get into field goal range and so we’ll never know. I wonder what would have happened if the Texans had been able to recover Keith’s fumble in the fourth quarter. For two weeks the ball has bounced our way but in this game it simply didn’t happen. The much maligned Morlon Greenwood caused the fumble but no Texan was in a position to recover it. Plays like that change the momentum of games but we didn’t recover the fumble so we’ll never know.

I can go on and on about things we didn’t get right yesterday and positions that need to be upgraded (our secondary comes to mind) but that would do a serious disservice to the Texans players who busted their collective butts to steal a win from the Colts. Those Colts are, unfortunately for us a much better team than we are at the moment and that can’t be denied. We’re in good company. The Colts are better than everybody. Instead I’d like to just say that we should all keep one thing in mind. Despite all of that we were one drive away from taking that win away from its rightful owner. They didn’t win but they don’t quit and they don’t seem to ever think they’re out of it. That’s a few steps up from past Texans teams right there.

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