Houston Texans Roundup: Must stop Andrew Luck to win in WIld Card Round

Wild Card Saturday to start the NFL Playoffs will need to consist of the Houston Texans stopping Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.

The process for the Houston Texans winning on Saturday afternoon in their AFC Wild Card Playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts is simple. First they must play at a high level on offense because the Colts defense will demand that of the Texans. Secondly, the Texans must force the Colts offense and their quarterback Andrew Luck into mistakes and miscues all game long.

Granted those are two obvious takes, but the most simple factors for this game are going to be the reasons for the Texans advancing to the AFC Divisional Round or seeing their season come to a close.

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The Colts have put pressure on Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson in both meetings this season, sacking him a total of 12 times, including one game with seven sacks and in their most recent meeting — a 24-21 Colts win — Watson was sacked five times.

The defensive backfield of the Texans isn’t the greatest and they’ve been battling some injuries as of late, plus Luck has dominated the Texans defense this season with games of 464 yards (a Texans win) and 399 yards (a Colts win).

To make it clear, the Texans had a bit of luck on their side in their win over the Colts as Indianapolis could have settled for a tie. Looking back at both games neither the Colts or Texans really dominated either game, so this should be another game where both teams go down to the wire before a winner stands tall.

This game should be fun, but everything will eventually come back to stopping Luck if the Texans want to win and advance. Thoughts?

Texans Headlines For Today

• Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com wrote about the bond of J.J. Watt and Watson as they both recovered from 2017 season-ending injuries, and played at a high level this season. Sidhu wrote the following:

"“While rehabbing from season-ending injuries, the three-time Defensive MVP and the rookie quarterback kept each other motivated for their comeback seasons in 2018.”"

This is such a great story that these two teammates who were going through similar situations were able to use each other to aid in their recovery process. That has seemed to work with both having excellent seasons and for that the Texans are AFC South champions and hosting a playoff game.

• Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com wrote about how Watt is “happy, healthy and ready for playoff football,” as the Texans are set to host the Colts this Saturday. The article quoted Watt:

"“I thought about never, ever playing, period, again. I also thought about playing great again. You think about everything.”"

It is tough to think about how rough the past two years before this season were on Watt. It has to be rewarding for an elite athlete like Watt battle injuries in 2016 and 2017 and come back to have the 2018 season he’s been able to achieve. The Texans are a much better team with Watt because not only the numbers he brings, but for how much better he makes everyone around him better as well. Watt is well deserving of all the praise he’s received for his ’18 season and hopefully that continues in the playoffs.

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It will be hard to find a better wide receiver playing in the Wild Card round or the entire NFL than DeAndre Hopkins.

If Hopkins can gain yet another 100-yard receiving game, and add to his 115 regular season receptions, he’ll give the Texans a big chance to win this game and move to the next round of the playoffs.