Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Matchup Preview (12/5/21): Betting Odds, Depth Charts, Live Stream (Watch Online)

Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Matchup Preview (12/5/21)

The Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans face off this Sunday after both losing last week. The Colts blew a huge lead and lost to the Bucs 38-31. This is a trend with the Colts this year – not only losing to playoff-caliber teams, but blowing big leads against them. They are now .500 and have to return to a winning record to sneak into the playoffs, which realistically they should be able to do against Houston. The Texans on the other hand, just lost to the Jets making them 2-9 on the season and not giving them much to play for. They too blew a big lead against the Jets, ultimately resulting in a 21-14 defeat because they couldn’t connect offensively after getting up. They need to control all the controllables to keep this any sort of game this week.

Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Betting Odds

The over/under for this matchup is 46 and the Colts are currently favored by 8 points, which is a bit surprising given the drastic difference in teams, so I foresee this possibly changing as the week goes on. The Colts are 7-5 against the spread this year with a great 4-1 record as the away team and they are 8-4 on hitting the over. The Texans are 5-6 on covering and 4-7 on hitting the over. Despite the fact that the Colts have played one more game than the Texans, their records against the spread and hitting the over are almost completely flip-flopped. The last time these two teams matched up, the Colts held the Texans to a touchdown-less game, beating them 31-3 in week 6. I foresee a similar result where the Colts win by a large margin. 

My prediction: Colts win 38-10, Colts cover, over 46

TV Schedule

Date: 12/5/21
Time: 1:00 PM ET
Location: NRG Stadium – Houston, TX
TV Coverage: CBS

Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Live Stream

Where can you watch Colts vs. Texans online? You can stream this game, and many other NFL games live online with Hulu. Hulu has a 7 Day free trial and is cheaper than cable options at $5.99/month. Watch Colts vs. Texans Free Online Now.

Indianapolis Colts Analysis

The Colts are very well gunning for a playoff spot, but in order to do that, they have to beat the good teams. They have dropped games that they had substantial leads in to the Ravens, Titans, and last week, the Bucs, but these are the kind of games they have to secure if they want to prove they can survive in the playoffs. They shot themselves in the foot last week against the Bucs, plagued by a poor second half that included dropped passes, turnovers, penalties, and took Jonathon Taylor out of the offense. They are now 6-6, sitting on the outside looking in at the playoffs. But against the Texans this week, they have a chance to get back to a winning record. 

Jonathon Taylor is the hottest topic in the entire NFL right now, and is obviously their most imminent threat. He leads the league in rushing yards at 1,205 and touchdowns with 14. He averages almost 6 yards per carry, and against a bad Houston run defense, this average will likely increase. Let’s not forget his five touchdown game against one of the best defenses in the league, the Buffalo Bills, that gave the Colts the win. So he should put on a clinic against the Texans. They do have a deep option in Michael Pitman Jr. with over 800 receiving yards this year, but the Texans have a better secondary that would be able to contain that better than they can contain Taylor, so they should keep the ball on the ground. 

The Colts have a few threats defensively: Most notably, Darius Leonard who has 93 tackles and led the league last week with 15 tackles against the Bucs, Bobby Okereke, who has 101 tackles and cornerback Kenny Moore who has 73 tackles and is leading the team with 3 interceptions. As a collective defense, they have forced the most turnovers in the league with 27, allow an average of 358.8 yards per game and allow 23.6 points per game. Houston’s pass defense does outrank them in passing yards allowed, but considering how hot the Colts run game is, I doubt this will be relevant.

Indianapolis Colts Depth Chart

QB: Carson Wentz
RB1: Jonathan Taylor
RB2: Nyheim Hines
WR1: Michael Pittman Jr.
WR2: T.Y. Hilton
WR3: Zach Pascal
TE1: Mo Alie-Cox
TE2: Jack Doyle

Houston Texans Analysis

The 2-9 Texans have driven the struggle bus this season. They are coming off of a loss to the Jets but also pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2021 season, beating the Tennessee Titans. Regardless, the Texans currently rank in the bottom five of the league in what feels like every category: rushing yards, passing yards, total yards, points, rushing yards allowed, total yards allowed…the list goes on. The bottom line is, they have a lot of work to do in the off-season. 

The Houston defense only gives up 242.5 passing yards per game against which is not bad, but they give up 135.6 rushing yards, so Taylor will be a problem for them. Their defense is led by Kamu Grugier-Hill who has 68 tackles, 2 sacks, and an interception. Jonathon Greenard has 8 sacks for 50 lost yards on the season which is among the top 15 in the league. This defense gives up 26.5 points per game. 

Offensively, they have struggled obviously but Brandin Cooks is their weapon who has 704 receiving yards and is targeted almost three times as much as their second-most targeted player. The Colts’ pass defense is not overwhelming, so I’m sure the Cooks train will continue. Tyrod Taylor has thrown for 921 yards over just 5 games with 62.8% completion rate. He has thrown for 3 touchdowns and rushed for 2.

Houston Texans Depth Chart

QB: Tyrod Taylor
RB1: David Johnson
RB2: Rex Burkhead
WR1: Nico Collins
WR2: Danny Amendola
WR3: Brandin Cooks
TE1: Jordan Akins

Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Daily Fantasy Picks

Jonathan Taylor will probably have the ball more than anyone this week. This is a perfect game for him to go off against a defense that cannot contain the running game for the life of them. He had 27 fantasy points when the Colts played the Texans in week 6, and he has only become more dangerous since then, so expect at least that much. 

Ka’imi Fairbairn would be a pretty good pick on the Texans side. He has 33 points on the season so he is accounting for about 20% of Houston’s overall points on his own. It won’t be a huge pick or a lot of points but it’s a safe bet for at least some points.