In my opinion there isn't a key to this game. I think our entire team has to play their best, bring their A game, in order for us to beat the Colts.
Offense- The OL must give time for Schaub to throw, and make some holes for Green/Dayne/Gado to run and take time off the clock. Schaub needs to make good decisions, he won't be forcing throws like he has to AJ that resulted in 1 INT, almost 2. He'll need to avoid the rush and keep drives alive by throwing short passes to get the 1st downs. All our WR's must step up their game and hang onto the ball. They need to be aware of the 1st down marker and get to it. They gotta keep the drives going b/c thats what keeps Peyton off the field. our RB's need to take what our OL gives them. We gotta win TOP for two reasons. (1) keep the colts offense off the field and (2) keep our defense as rested as possible, they will be facing the 2nd most potent offense in the league and cannot be tired the whole game.
Defense- our front 4 have to get a good pass rush and make peyton hurry as much as possible. PM is going to find the open guys, but let's make them be the short routes and not Harrison burning Faggins/Brown for 2 td's...don't let their wr's have all day to find the creases. Our front 4 must also be able to stop the run while rushing peyton..this will allow our LB's to be in some short coverage, not to mention we might be playing nickle and dime a lot...we can't rely on 3 LB's to stop the run every down.
Special Teams- Kris Brown needs to be 100% on FG's and extra points. Turk needs to keep booming those long punts and pinning them inside the 10 yd line. We must have good coverage on ST so jacoby and mathis are able to do what they do. I havn't been impressed so far this season because creating enough room for jacoby to make a play.
Coaching- I think we're going to see some creativity out of Kubiak this game. Playcalling is going to be crucial. Indianapolis knows we want to run the ball on them and are going to have that gameplanned, Bob Sanders is going to be playing the run untill we prove our wr's are up to the task. I see a lot of short passes to give us 3rd and short as well as keeping the clock moving.
I think we need to have our best game of Texan existence in all areas of the game in order to win. i don't think only one is going to get us there like it did last year. This is a better Indy team than last year much to my surprise..I thought they wouldn't be as good.