The Texans walked into Lucas Oil Stadium with a chance to exorcise another demon that has dogged my fave NFL franchise since their founding and help themselves in the race for one of the AFC playoff byes as well. All they had to do was beat Indianapolis for the first time in nine tries on the road Thursday night to make that happen. But unfortunately the Texans got into the holiday spirit and gave away this critical game to the Colts 19-16. Instead of making history in terms of sweeping the Colts for the first time in franchise history and keeping their opportunity for going unbeaten in the AFC South for the first time alive, they made NFL history in a negative way by becoming the first 10 win division championship team to lose to a one win team But the Texans put the coal in their own playoff Christmas stockings with a too conservative offense, fumbles, going 1 for 9 in third down conversions that stopped drives, not scoring touchdowns in the red zone when they did get there, and committed critical penalties at inopportune times, including the Colts game winning drive. They also wasted a 158 yard rushing night by Arian Foster on top of it. The refs screwed up on a few calls as well, but the game never should have been close enough for the refs to take it away from them in the first place. The loss knocked them out of any chance to have a AFC playoff bye much less home field for the entire playoffs unless New England and Baltimore get eliminated. They will still host at least one playoff game at Reliant Stadium, but they just made their already long odds for getting back to Indy for the Super Bowl in February that much harder. The Texans finish Sunday with a game at Reliant Stadium against the Tennessee Titans Traitors, who will be coming to town with revenge on their minds after getting their butts kicked 41-7 by the Texans earlier in the season and are fighting for their playoff lives. You know what to do Texans. Handle your NFL business. I'm tired of hearing the flapping gums of the Harris County Arlington Cowchip fans and so are the rest of the Texan faithful.
