HOUSTON (AP) — A season so promising just a few short

weeks ago is on the verge of falling apart for the Houston Texans.One of only three winless teams in the NFL Indianapolis Colts Customized Jerseys , the Texans are desperate to get a victory on Sunday against the Colts and try to salvage their season.“We have to win this game,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “We just have to win.”After going 4-12 last season, the Texans had high expectations entering this year with the return of stars J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson, who both missed big chunks of last season with injuries.Instead three straight close losses have the Texans searching for ways to escape the NFL’s basement.“These are close games and it’s the team that doesn’t beat themselves that ends up winning, and we’ve been beating ourselves too much,” coach Bill O’Brien said.It is Houston’s worst start since opening the 2008 season 0-4. If you add the six games they lost to end the 2017 season, the Texans have lost nine straight. It has been more than 10 months since they won a game with their last victory coming against the Arizona Cardinals on Nov. 19.Watt said the importance of ending the skid this week can’t be overstated.“We have to,” he said. “We don’t have one. Haven’t had one in a long time so we really need to get a win. It’s very tough opponent, a very tough place to play so we have to go on the road and put our best foot forward.”The Colts aren’t doing much better than Houston this season and enter the game 1-2. But the Texans haven’t had much success against Indianapolis and have a 7-25 record in 32 meetings. They’ve had even more trouble in Indianapolis where they’ve won just twice in 16 visits.Despite their struggles, O’Brien isn’t worried about the psyche of his team and knows that getting a win against an AFC South opponent will go a long way toward getting things on the right track.“We’ve only played one divisional game,” he said. “We’ve got a big one this week. So, we just have to keep grinding. There’s no other way out of it. There’s no choice. I think when you have the role that I have, it’s easy. There’s no choice. You have to go to work and you have to figure it out.”For Watson, trying to end a skid is a new experience. Watson, who helped Clemson to a national title in the 2016 season, lost just two games combined in his last two seasons in college. He said this stretch has already taught him some lessons.“Just dealing with adversity Indianapolis Colts T-Shirts ,” he said. “Try to take the good with the bad and really dig down each and every week to find out what the problem is.”The problem, according to Watson and O’Brien is not paying attention to details. The Texans rank eighth in the NFL by averaging 396.3 yards a game, but are tied for 22nd in scoring with just 19.7 points a game in part because of an excessive amount of penalties and negative plays in the red zone.Houston’s three losses have been by a combined 15 points, giving the Texans hope that if they tighten a few things up they’ll be able to get over the hump and into the win column this week.“We’re not that far off,” Mathieu said. “We just have to do better at preparing, building up throughout the week and then on gameday, starting fast and then finishing strong. So, if we can do those things and if our five-star players could play like five-star players, then we’ll be good.” Heading into the season, it was widely accepted that the Indianapolis Colts were in a rebuilding year. Some projected a losing record. Numerous others suggested that a .500 season should be considered a big accomplishment. Neither of those groups could have imagined some of the things that have happened in 2018.Even fans who were confident in Andrew Luck’s return to football after nearly two years away from the game had to admit hesitation. What can you realistically expect from a player who underwent major shoulder surgery, suffered an apparent setback during his recovery, and didn’t officially start the football portion of his throwing program until training camp only a few months ago? If I had to guess, even the most optimistic fan wouldn’t have thought that 13 games into the season Luck would be among the top five quarterbacks in passing yards, have a quarterback rating just under Aaron Rodgers but above Tom Brady, and sit second in the NFL in touchdown passes. Coming into the season, it was expected that a major transition from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 Tampa 2 style would take time. There is simply no way to acquire all of the players a team needs to effectively run the system in one year. While the Colts defense isn’t where fans or coaches want it to be just yet www.coltsfanshop.com/hats , there are tremendous first year strides that no one would have predicted. The Colts are currently sitting at 11th in total defense, 18th in point per game, 15th in pass defense, 9th!!! in run defense (the Achilles heel of the Tampa 2), 12th in sacks, and 8th in forced fumbles. Not only is this defense already an average or even above average unit, it has players who are flashing in a much brighter way than could have been imagined.Chris Ballard should be seriously considered for executive of the year. His draft picks and free agent additions on the offensive line have completely changed the face of the organization. Injuries to Jack Doyle and Ryan Kelly have brought the group down to a earth a bit but when veteran Matt Slauson went down, Mark Gowinski somehow upgraded the right guard position. When the floundering attempts at right tackle failed and Joe Haeg suffered an injury, rookie Braden Smith turned into what appears to be a long-term answer at the position. The future looks very bright for the Colts offensive line and just one year ago this unit had huge question marks. An even greater accomplishment has to be the work Ballard has done in just two years at linebacker. No position was a bigger weakness heading into the 2018 NFL Draft. The pledge to bring in a handful of new players at the position signaled a complete “rebuild” at the second level of an entirely new defense. Right now? Darius Leonard, who was an “over-drafted” small school prospect early in the second round, and Anthony Walker, a mid-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft who did very little as a rookie, look very much like the team’s future at the position. Leonard is a front runner for Defensive Rookie of the Year (and is currently underappreciated in discussions for Defensive Player of the Year outright). Leonard leads the NFL in tackles by 17 and he missed a game this season. Walker is 15th in the NFL with 97 tackles and has come on strong in recent weeks.Rookies Matthew Adams, Zaire Franklin, and Skai Moore are all still with the team. Adams has stepped into a prominent role as the starting strong side or SAM linebacker. He has shown speed, range Indianapolis Colts Hoodie , and strength that seventh round picks aren’t supposed to show. He played a big role in containing Dashaun Watson in the pocket. Even the defensive line has been a breath of fresh air. Free agent acquisition Denico Autry was only kind of exciting for Colts fans. He wasn’t a marquee name in free agency and Ballard didn’t throw away the team’s future trying to pay him. He currently leads the Colts in sacks with 8 on the season, has tallied 5 sacks in the last two weeks, and has been dominant at 3-tech defensive tackle. Margus Hunt has battled through injuries for the most productive season of his career. Jabaal Sheard has been a dominant edge defender, particularly against the run, and has 5.5 sacks of his own. Rookies Kemoko Turay and Tyquan Lewis have flashed potential as pass rushers. Indianapolis has acquired what many believe is the top group of tight ends in the NFL. Starters Jack Doyle and Eric Ebron have Pro Bowl level talent. Mo Alie-Cox and Erik Swoope have been red zone threats who can easily get lost as defenses focus attention elsewhere. Perhaps the most impressive part of the story here is that the Colts have Ross Travis on injured reserve who many thought would push his way onto the roster this season.Ultimately, these surprises, these wins at numerous positions in a very short period of time have resulted in the Colts going on an impressive 6-1 run after a slow 1-5 start. Let’s take a look back at the keys to the game and how the Colts came out on top against the Houston Texans.KEEP DESHAUN WATSON UNCOMFORTABLECheck. The Colts defense generated 5 sacks and 7 quarterback hits. They contained Watson in the pocket and held him to 35 yards on 5 carries on the ground. They also knocked down four of his passes. BRACKET HOPKINSCheck. Hopkins caught 4 passes on 10 targets for 36 yards and a touchdown. No Texans player was targeted more than Hopkins on the day and he simply couldn’t get anything going. For big stretches of the game, he wasn’t a factor. MUST MAINTAIN BALANCEMeh. The Colts were able to stay more balanced than they were against the Jacksonville Jaguars a week ago but the running game was entirely ineffective. Andrew Luck led the way, averaging over 6 yards per carry — not counting his kneel downs at the end of the game. Marlon Mack averaged only 2.4 yards per carry and Nyheim Hines averaged .3 yards. BIG PLAYS/TURNOVERSThe officials nearly stole this one. Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers sniffed out a goal line pass that Geathers was able to pick off. A ridiculous personal foul on Hooker gave the Texans another chance that ended with a touchdown, instead of a goal line turnover.Either way, Indianapolis was unable to win the turnover battle and it kept the game closer than it otherwise would have been.OFFENSIVE LINE MUST GELCheck. While Andrew Luck was sacked twice, he held onto the ball too long on at least one of those plays. The other sack was J.J. Watt doing what he does. Ultimately, Luck was able to pick the Texans defense apart — using a heavy dose of T.Y. Hilton and often had a clean pocket to work from. Jadaveon Clowney was shutout and Braden Smith handled Watt one-on-one for much of the afternoon.There is still work to be done, particularly in the run game, but this was a better effort.