HOUSTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Peyton Manning passed for 271 yards and two touchdowns Sunday to easily outduel David Carr as the Indianapolis Colts handed the Houston Texans their first home loss, 23-3.
Two weeks ago, the Texans built off the emotion of a frenzied crowd at Reliant Stadium and became the first expansion team in 41 years to win in their debut when they upset the Dallas Cowboys.
But Manning was not rattled by another boisterous crowd as he completed 21 of 28 passes with touchdown throws of 42 yards to Qadry Ismail and a 43 yards to Reggie Wayne.
"We were able to make the most from their mistakes," Manning said. "The crowd noise wasn't really a factor out there. Anyone who watches us know we change a lot of plays with (the audibles)."
Marvin Harrison had eight catches for 110 yards and Edgerrin James rushed for 88 yards for Indianapolis (2-1), which improved to 2-0 on the road.
"We did a lot of good things in this game and coming in we knew we were up against an expansion team with a good defense," Colts coach Tony Dungy said.
"One of the keys to this game for us was field position. It's so important against that kind of offense and we wanted to make it as difficult as possible for them to get anything going. That is how we wanted to control the game."
Manning easily won the battle of former first overall picks in the draft as Carr failed to move the Texans for the second straight week. He completed 12 of 22 passes for 99 yards and was sacked four times.
Carr has thrown for just 176 yards and been sacked 13 times in the last two games. In his final collegiate season at Fresno State, he was sacked 15 times.
"The No. 1 thing in this business is you have to be a fighter and we have a couple of guys on this team who I think are fighters," Texans coach Dom Capers said. "The biggest problem we're having is with our consistency and execution. We lost the game because the Colts executed better than we did today."
Kris Brown kicked a 24-yard field goal for the Texans (1-2), who have managed just six points in their last two games.
Manning got the Colts going on their second drive, moving his club 80 yards in seven plays. He had a 26-yard pass to Harrison on third and nine to keep the drive alive and capped it with his 42-yard pass to Ismail with 2:23 left in the first quarter.
After the Colts committed a turnover on their next possession, they got a big play from their defense when safety Idrees Bashir intercepted Carr at the Houston 41.
James rushed for 26 yards on the ensuing drive that stalled at the eight before Mike Vanderjagt kicked a 26-yard field goal 4:38 into the second quarter.
Vanderjagt capped an eight-play, 46-yard drive with 1:22 left in the half for a 13-0 lead.
Manning went nien of 11 for 141 yards in the half. Carr went just five of 11 for 34 yards and was sacked three times.
Carr was helped by his running game as rookie Jonathan Wells carried 14 times for 93 yards.
"We know we need to improve offensively," Carr said. "I thought we ran the ball well throughout the game and got a big game from Wells. Our offensive line did a great job early in the game creating some holes for (James) Allen too.
"We were getting a lot of good yardage on the ground and that's what we're going to have to do week in and week out."
The Texans had their only success on offense on their initial possession of the second half, when they went 56 yards in 11 plays. They reached the Indianapolis seven, but Carr scrambled for a short gain and threw an incompletion.
Brown kicked a 24-yard field goal to cap the drive that lasted more than six minutes with 4:52 left in the quarter.
The Colts received a fortunate bounce to put away the game with 4:06 remaining when Manning lofted a pass down the left sideline for Wayne. The ball bounced off the hands of cornerback Marcus Coleman and into the waiting arms of Wayne, who ran the final 15 yards into the end zone.
Vanderjagt capped the scoring with a 37-yard field goal with 1:11 remaining.
