Colts 26, Texans 20
FRANK REICH: Obviously a big win. Wow. 60-minute game. Really proud of the guys hanging in there. Great team win. We knew coming on the road against a division opponent who was hot, who could score some points, has a special player at quarterback, it was going to require all three phases. We hung in there and did what we needed to do to win the game.
Obviously great day by T.Y., getting him going. He did what T.Y. does here at this stadium against this team. He really provided us a spark and got us going. We needed all those points we scored in the first half obviously.
Obviously Justin Houston, huge day, huge day with the three sacks, safety. From what I understand he now ties the all-time record for safeties. Really good there.
Got the run game going a little bit in the second half. It was rough in the first half a little bit. Defense locked things down in the second half and did what we needed to do to win.
The only injury that we have to report is the ankle injury to Le'Raven.
I'll open it up for questions from there.
Q. Could you talk us through the fourth-and-one decision, not getting the field goal. What went into it? Were you worried about it biting you in the rear-end the way the game ended up?
FRANK REICH: No. I mean, that's a call that I had a lot of confidence in. The situation, we had good momentum, a good drive going. My gut feeling and our confidence in our offense to pick up the play, there were multiple options on the play. Yeah, I'll just say there were multiple options on the play. At the end of the day we didn't quite execute it the way we needed to.
I had confidence we would get it done. If we didn't get it done, which is always that possibility, they got good players, too, I had confidence in our defense.
My gut feeling the whole way was to go for it. It was a pretty strong go on the charts, as well. That just confirmed it. Obviously we got the safety. But we just need to be a little bit more productive obviously on offense that second half.
Q. Second half, the production on offense, that was a complete turnaround from the first half. What led to those struggles?
FRANK REICH: Well, they played good. They played well in the second half. I mean, I am not sure. I got to see the film. We didn't score any points.
Q. Penalties maybe, as well?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, a few penalties. We had a couple long drives, just came away with nothing. But then just hurt by a couple penalties.
Got the running game going a little bit in the second half. There at the end just tried to go to and got a penalty, put us behind the sticks. Couldn't overcome that.
There's no question that's not good enough on offense in the second half. We got to play tighter defense in the first half. Then we got two return touchdowns, two return touchdowns in the kicking game that get called back. I'm assuming they're good calls. We can't have those calls. We got to play with more discipline, better decision making, but still get that kind of execution that can unleash Nyheim.
Q. Back to the fourth down call. When you have Nyheim in the backfield, what is the thinking going into that? You went with him in the game in Nashville and got stopped on the fourth down calls. Why Nyheim over Jonathan?
FRANK REICH: We see all three backs as interchangeable. For three years I've gone through this with Nyheim, where when he gets stopped on a fourth-and-one or third-and-one or two, it's a fair question. I'm not saying it's not a fair question. But the question always gets asked.
There's plenty of times where he's making those runs. We have a lot of confidence in him. Any one of our backs right there was going to get stopped with the way that thing played out. We just didn't execute it the way we wanted. Nyheim runs a little different, a little shiftier.
Like I said, we have confidence. We had set on that play, we had talked about before the play, if it came down to that play. We even said, Which of the three backs do we want in there? We just talked it through as an offensive staff. Whoever is in there at the time we're comfortable because that's how much confidence we have in each of those three guys.
Q. Jonathan Taylor today, was it the way the rotation broke out that he got fewer carries? Any kind of pitch count today?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, no pitch count. He hit some runs, looked good. The rotation went his way. Rath kept him in there. He made the most of those opportunities. I thought he ran hard and looked good.
We've got to see the film. Still disappointed in getting the run game going in the first half, but excited about what we did in the second half as far as the run game was concerned.
Q. What is Philip dealing with in terms of pain right now? A report he's got a little bit more than a sore toe. Has it hindered how you've seen him play? He was pretty dang good today.
FRANK REICH: Yeah, no, I thought Philip was really sharp today in every way. His game, it's not like we're running sprintouts and bootlegs with him. He's a pocket passer. He doesn't scramble a whole lot.
Whatever level of pain he's dealing with, I feel confident that he can play winning football. He's playing winning football. He's getting better each week. We feel good about that.
That's just the kind of player he is. He's a tough player. He's fighting through it. But it's not at the point where I feel like it's hindering the way we call the game at all.
Q. What was it like to see DeForest back playing the way he did right from the start?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, he looked great out there. Obviously look at the film closely. But he was making plays in the run and the pass game. Did a great job, got close, forced some things a couple times where he didn't get sacked, forcing the issue. Great leader, great energy. Really good to have him back out there.
Q. On the last play, the last play for the Texans, what was your emotion in that moment? Do you feel you got a gift from the football gods there?
FRANK REICH: Yeah, it was crazy. Obviously that's why it's a 60-minute game. You see it all. You're never surprised at things that happen in this league.
We had used our timeouts. First of all, obviously I was feeling like we were going to stop them. If we didn't, if they scored there, I felt like we had plenty of time to go down and kick a field goal and win the game. Philip in a two-minute mode and our offense in a two-minute mode would be good. We got the break there. We made the break. They dropped a snap. We had a good recovery, guys hustling to the ball, getting it on our side.
Certainly take it any way we can get it.
Q. I'm asking the bad questions this week. Kenny Moore, on the pick he had, have you seen the replay of that? Why do you blitz him so much? I think I know the answer but I need you to say it.
FRANK REICH: On the replay, we thought he had it clean. What we saw on the sidelines, what we saw live was that Kenny had it, that it was never simultaneous possession. He came out with it. The officials called it that way.
In the review, our guys, as well as the officials, confirmed there was no visual evidence to overturn what we saw with our naked eye. We were pretty confident we were going to get that. Kenny made a great play.
The amount of times we blitz him, you're exactly right, we feel like Kenny is the best at that in the NFL. We feel like he's the best nickel in the NFL when he's playing in a slot right there. One of his great traits is timing and knack on the blitz. Even when he's not making a play, he's forcing the issue. There's a lot to be said for that. Teams have to account for him.
He's playing really good football.
Thanks, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports