The Indianapolis Colts will visit the Houston Texans in the 2010 NFL regular-season opener at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser examines five key storylines involving Colts-Texans . . .
1.Will the Colts have to come back?
The Colts have trailed by 17 points in each of their last two trips to Houston, and have rallied each time. They had one of the most remarkable in franchise history in 2008, rallying from a 31-10 deficit in with less than five minutes remaining. They trailed by 17 points in the first half last season before rallying to win, 35-27. “That's the nature of us,” Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “It doesn't matter if there's 30 seconds left on the clock. We play to the end. We have a lot of veterans, so we have a never-say-die attitude. We don't want those situations. We'd rather have a huge lead, but those things do happen. We've done a good job of adjusting.” One factor Sunday could be the mental edge that history could give the Colts. The crowd will be intense early, and the Texans' emotions will be high. It's conceivable they could use that rush to get an early lead, but you have to wonder how confident Houston will be even with an early lead that they can prevent history from repeating.
2.Can the Colts' defense pressure Matt Schaub?
There once was a time the Colts could get sacks on the Houston on almost a routine basis. That was in the days when David Carr was the Texans' quarterback, when Freeney said the Texans typically dropped Carr straight back and counted on being able to block Freeney and end Robert Mathis. Often, that didn't happen and there were games when Freeney and Mathis harassed and hit Carr in brutal fashion. Freeney said that's more difficult to do against Schaub, because Head Coach Gary Kubiak utilizes the “Denver” offense of bootlegging and protecting Schaub. Still, getting pressure on Schaub will be critical to disrupt one of the NFL's most potent passing offenses.
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