Colts 31, Texans 0
COACH REICH: No injuries to report. That's great news in general. Going into the bye that's really good news.
So have a chance, players have a chance to really get healthy and emotionally recharged and physically ready to go for the final stretch.
Obviously great win today. Dominant defensive performance. I mean, that's our organization's fourth shutout I think is what he said. That's hard to do. The defense was unreal. I don't think they crossed the 50 yard line until a minute to go.
That's an epic defensive performance from really start to finish, and that's what with we talked about at halftime. As good as it was in the first half, it was just as important for us to finish that game like that just for where we want to go.
Offensively, came out, you know, came out just okay in the first half. Needed to be a little bit better, and then we were. Just kept pounding -- said at halftime, Let's keep pounding, we are going to increase some of these runs, and stayed with it, and the guys did a good job up front and special teams was rock solid again.
Q. This team beat the Titans a couple weeks ago. Did you remind your team that you might be looking ahead to the bye, the opponent, but still got to take care of business?
COACH REICH: Just counted on the leadership in the locker room. We knew it was a division game. We expected their best. Like you said, we knew this team had beaten the Titans. We had respect for this team and it's a division game, and our guys got ready to play.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH REICH: Yeah, I mean, I think Kenny Moore is a Pro Bowl player. I really do. I just think he's a difference maker. We think he's the best nickel in the league. He's a great corner when he's playing corner, and when he's playing nickel he's great. He understands the game, he makes plays, and he's consistent.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH REICH: Thought it would be a long stretch to get to week 14, but then like we mentioned, we had that Thursday night game four weeks ago and that kind of gave us a little mini bye that refreshed the guys a little bit.
So you just got to mentally say it all plays to your advantage, and I am sure now that we're here and healthy and the challenge we have in front of us, I think it's obviously coming at a great spot.
Q. How will you handle the next couple weeks? Assuming the players will have come time off.
COACH REICH: Yeah, we do, so the players will be in tomorrow. Really we got the team photo tomorrow so got to get that done.
Do a quick recap of the game and then they'll have off the rest of the week. And then since we play Saturday, probably another good thing to have a bye before we got to play a Saturday game.
So they will come back in on Monday for a light workout and then we'll really start our week on Tuesday.
Q. Do you ask guys to stay at all during the bye or just...
COACH REICH: Really just get away. Just tell them don't let your guard down. Be safe. Don't go crazy. We have a saying, not too high, not too low, a man of wisdom avoids all extremes, have some fun, enjoy yourself, get some rest, use good hygiene. Do you all these things, be smart, and do the right thing.
Q. How much time will you take off?
COACH REICH: Yeah, the coaches will have some time off, but we'll work through Wednesday, clean up this game, make the corrections we need to make, and get ready for New England, and then the coaches will have off Thursday, Friday.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH REICH: I don't think so. You know, we'll just keep -- everybody will keep testing, test every day. Just hopeful it's just an isolated case. Yeah, and obviously for Ryan, situation, glad we're going into the bye for him.
Q. How much do you think his absence contributed? What opened up the run game in the second half?
COACH REICH: I think it was just patient. We just wore him down a little bit. Just wore him down, and the fact that defense was playing so well and just kept giving us opportunity, can't underestimate that.
When the defense, when it's three and out, I mean, turnovers, you can be more patient with the run game. You can be more patient with the run game when the defense is playing like that, and I think we just eventually wore them down.
Q. (Regarding scoreboard watching.)
COACH REICH: Yeah, I think we all know we have an uphill battle. We have an uphill battle, so there is no time for scoreboard watching for us. We got to take them one at time and win every week. It's kind of a playoff game as Zach said, so I think our guys have been tested and I think that's a good thing.
We've had a really good schedule as far as we played a lot of good playoff teams, and hopefully we're learning and getting better from each of those contests. We got a few more coming up here, and we got to be on pointe with all the games.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports