Brock Osweiler C.J. Fiedorowicz

For much of Sunday Night Football, the Houston Texans were struggling against the Indianapolis Colts, trailing 3-0 after the first quarter, 13-3 at the half and 23-9 with 7:04 left. Heading into the final minutes, it looked like the Colts would be able to hang on for a win over their AFC South division rivals. However, Brock Osweiler managed to lead a 12-play, 75-yard drive to make the score 23-16 with 2:37 left, and the Texans’ decision to kick deep was validated when their defense got an immediate stop. Osweiler got the ball back on the Houston 46 with 1:50 to play, and he threw a pass to running back Lamar Miller for 16 yards, a pass to tight end C. J. Fiedorowicz for 11, and then this 26-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Fiedorowicz (which they’re shown celebrating above) with just 54 seconds left:

Of course, the Texans still could easily have lost after that. The Colts got the ball back with enough time for a field goal, but the Houston defense stopped them and forced a punt to send the game to overtime. The Colts then won the coin toss and started with the ball, giving Andrew Luck a chance to win it, but he only managed one first down, and even a 12 men on the field penalty wasn’t enough to keep the Texans from punting. Osweiler then took over on the Houston 33 and got the Texans into field goal range with another pass to Fiedorowicz, two runs by Miller and a 36-yard catch from Jaleen Strong. That set up this Nick Novak field goal:

And led to this celebration:

That’s a critical win for Houston, moving them to 3-2 on the year, and it’s even sweeter for coming after their early struggles and coming against a divisional opponent. It may be particularly sweet for Osweiler, who’s been facing a lot of criticism after signing a four-year $72-million deal to move to the Texans this offseason and struggling early on. His overall showing in this one was more solid than spectacular (25 completions on 39 attempts for 269 yards with two touchdowns and an interception), and he didn’t play particularly well until the fourth quarter, but that comeback certainly has things looking better for him and his team. Meanwhile, losing a game like this will only raise more questions for the Colts, who are now 2-3 and have seen head coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson take a lot of flak following their early-season struggles. That’s only going to rise in the wake of this performance.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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