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INDIANAPOLIS -- For Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, there is always optimism. Even though the Colts' postseason chances took a big hit with a 16-10 home-field loss to AFC South rival Houston on Sunday, Pagano is taking a never-say-die attitude into the team's final two regular-season games.
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This week Indianapolis will play its last regular-season road game, traveling to Miami on Sunday. Next week, the Colts will face off against division foe Tennessee in the team's 2015 regular-season home finale.
Houston can clinch the AFC South this week if the Texans beat Tennessee and the Colts lose or tie against Miami, or if Houston ties the Titans and Indianapolis loses to the Dolphins, or if the Texans win plus their strength of victory tiebreaker.
A daunting task to be sure for an Indianapolis team that has lost three in a row and has struggled.
"Stranger things have happened. Call me naive, but there's still a chance," Pagano said Monday. "I tell the guys to keep fighting. We signed up for 16 regular-season games. We're going to finish the race."
Losing to the Texans hurt in a lot of ways. Indianapolis couldn't take advantage of numerous scoring opportunities while on offense and then couldn't come up with the necessary stops on defense.
"All losses stink," the Colts coach said. "We had a great opportunity and let it slip away."
So now it's on to Miami and then Tennessee.
"Until they mathematically say you're done, we're fighting. We're going to prepare to go play a game," Pagano said. "It's three (losses) in a row. It's where we are right now. Every season is different, every team is different. So you got to deal with adversity.
"We got to keep working. We got to keep grinding like we're going to and that's what you do. That's what professionals do. They come in, they work, keep trying to find answers. Get it fixed and try to get a win. That's all you can do."
REPORT CARD VS. TEXANS:
--PASSING OFFENSE: C minus. QB Matt Hasselbeck struggled against Houston, completing 17-of-30 passes for 147 yards and a TD. Hasselbeck was sacked twice and hit on eight other occasions. His passer rating for the game was 66.9. Hasselbeck has played hurt the last three weeks and his numbers continue to tumble. WR Donte Moncrief caught five passes for 51 yards and a TD.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: D. Running back Frank Gore averaged just 2.8 yards per rushing attempt against Houston. Gore rushed for 44 yards on 16 carries. As a team, the Colts ran for 50 yards in 19 carries. That's a paltry 2.6-yard team rushing average. With the passing game struggling, opposing defenses have been hugging the line of scrimmage. The inconsistency of the offensive line play hasn't helped either.
--PASS DEFENSE: C minus. When QB Brandon Weeden is the star of the game, there is a good chance the pass defense is struggling. Weeden replaced an injured T.J. Yates late in the second quarter and proceeded to lead the Texans to the win. Weeden completed 11-of-18 passes for 105 yards and a TD. He was sacked once and ended the game with a respectable 95.8 passer rating. Yates completed 6-of-10 passes for 68 yards and had one pass intercepted during his short stint in the game.
--RUN DEFENSE: C minus. Texans running back Alfred Blue ran 20 times for 107 yards against Indianapolis. Blue had one fumble but averaged 5.4 yards per carry. Running back Akeem Hunt had 26 yards in five rushing attempts. As a team, Houston ran for 155 yards on 37 attempts and averaged 4.2 yards per carry.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: B plus. Kicker Adam Vinatieri made his only field goal attempt, hitting from 29 yards out in the second quarter. Punter Pat McAfee was in the running in the early going for Star of the Game as he averaged 38.1 yards net and 41.1 yards overall on seven punts. Five of those punts came in the second half. McAfee had five punts downed inside the Houston 20-yard line. He also had three touchbacks on kickoffs. Rookie Quan Bray continues to impress, averaging 16.8 yards on four punt returns and 26.7 yards on three kickoff returns. And after struggling in kickoff and punt coverage the previous two games (allowing long punt returns for touchdowns in each game), the Colts did a pretty good job against the Texans.
--COACHING: C minus. The Colts have been in a downward spiral the last three weeks, and there doesn't seem to be a lot that the coaching staff has been able to do to pull the team out of its slide. A bad penalty in the fourth quarter for having too many defensive players on the field allowed Houston to get a big first down on its only touchdown drive of the game. No creativity on offense with the play calling. And defensively, once again DeAndre Hopkins hurt Indianapolis despite being the only real deep threat that the Texans had.
