I will never forget my senior year on the varsity football team. We won our first three games of the season and we were on a natural high. After ten years of being bad, our high school was finally seeing success on the football field. And then it happened. In the fourth game of the season, we were finally brought back to earth. We lost, but I will never forget the first words uttered by my coach. “All good things must come to an end,” said our coach as he gazed into the eyes of young men who just had their hearts broken.

I imagine that’s what the Houston Texans must have been thinking as they watched their 9-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the team they started the streak against. The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Texans 24 – 21 in front of a home crowd of over 71,000. That win helped avenge an earlier loss to Houston back in week 4 in overtime 37-34.

“We’re the ones who started their win-streak, so it was only right that we ended it. We came out strong. We came out with a mindset that they can’t stop us no matter what, and we just came in and played,” said starting wideout for the Colts, T.Y. Hilton, who had another outstanding performance against the Texans with 9 catches for 199 yards. Hilton has four 100-yard games at NRG Stadium. “Every time I come here, I just go off. I don’t know what it is.”

The Texans took a 7-0 lead on a 3-yard run by running back Alfred Blue, but that would be the only lead they would have for the entire game. The Colts scored 17 consecutive points in the second quarter and took advantage of an early injury to wide receiver DeAndre Carter. He was put in concussion protocol and was out for the game. That injury was a detrimental blow due to the fact that Carter was the only other available slot receiver the Texans had, due to the hamstring issues that have plagued rookie KeKe Coutee all season. Houston was forced to use third-string quarterback, Joe Webb III, as a last resort to fill the void at receiver.

“Joe (Webb) is a guy that gives us a lot on special teams. I don't get opportunities with him with the ones. He is the third quarterback, so sometimes he gets a lot of reps on the scout team. We're asking Joe Webb to do a lot of things. He did a good job of coming in, doing the best he can while he can in a tough situation,” quarterback Deshaun Watson said after putting up decent numbers (27/38-267 yards & 1td) despite not having his full arsenal of offensive weapons.

Houston picked it up in the second half by scoring 14 points and only relinquishing 7, but it was too little, too late. The streak was over. It had been over two months since Texans fans have experienced the feeling of defeat.

“Look, I don't like what happened today, but I'm fine with where we are. This is the NFL. We did not do a good enough job today. The Colts did a much better job than us. There's a lot of football left. Again, we have a very good locker room. We've got guys that are going to show back up to work here, get ready to go,” said head coach Bill O’Brien. “We have a tough game on the road on the East Coast, probably not going to be great weather, all those things. Our guys are going to get ready to go. That's the NFL.”

The Texans will look to bounce back from defeat as they take on the New York Jets this Saturday. Kickoff is at 3:30 pm CST.