NFL preview: Indianapolis Colts face Houston Texans with AFC South lead up for grabs

The top two in the AFC South go head-to-head on Thursday night with the Houston Texans hosting the Indianapolis Colts at NRG Stadium.

Thursday’s are tough games to get set for after playing on a Sunday, and both teams are a little banged up and just keen to get bodies onto the field for what should be another tough divisional contest.

Texans running back Arian Foster in particular has voiced his dislike of playing on a short week, although he will relish another crack at the Colts having done so well against them in the past.

The Colts love playing on a Thursday, though, and will be looking for a tenth straight win in midweek encounters, but going on the road after so little preparation time is always tough and the away team has just one win out of five these games so far this season.

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Both teams are 3-2 heading into the match-up and looking to stand alone at the top of the division, but while Houston have lost two of the last three, the Colts have hit form with three straight wins heading into the contest.

Luck the star

Andrew Luck hit the ground running in the NFL, but he’s now growing into one of the best quarterbacks in the league and is showcasing his leadership skills as well as his arm strength, not to mention his deceptively-good running ability as well.

He leads the league in passing yards (1,617) and touchdown passes (14) and the Colts tie with the Saints with 156 points scored this season. He’s had his interception problems this season, but against Houston his form is good as he’s a career record of 3-1 with nine TDs against just the one solitary pick.

One strange point is that while Luck is 2-0 in Thursday night games he’s not thrown a touchdown in either victory, instead running in three scores himself! After also grabbing a rushing touchdown to beat Baltimore on Sunday, watch out for Luck to again use his underrated rushing skills.

Stop the Watt

While Luck has been flying, he has also thrown as many interceptions as any other QB in the league with six. Some bad decisions and some rushed throws have accounted for them, and Luck could be under pressure again with JJ Watt waiting for him in Houston.

Luck’s only been sacked six times this season, but the Texans have had him down 11 times in the last four games – Watt has four of those. Indy will also be without starting guards Hugh Thornton and Jack Mewhort due to injury, which will not make the task of stopping Watt any easier.

Improved Indy D

While Luck led the team to the playoffs last season, they lost their opening two games this year mainly due to their leaky defence, which yielded 819 yards and forced just one turnover in those opening encounters.

Since then though they’ve had a vast improvement with 892 yards allowed in the following three games, and more importantly nine turnovers and 11 sacks as they’ve become much more aggressive. In fact, they’ve won their last three games by an aggregate of 105-47.

Foster feast

Arian Foster may not like turning out on a Thursday, but he certainly loves playing against the Colts; Houston’s lead rusher has feasted on them the last few years, running for 867 total yards at an average of 173.4 yards per game with six touchdowns to boot.

He’s coming off a 157-yard game against the Cowboys on Sunday and despite appearing on the Texans injury report it’ll be a huge surprise if he’s not given a big workload. The Colts bottled up Baltimore for just 90 yards on Sunday but stopping Foster, who is second in the NFL with an average of 101 yards a game, is a different story. 

I don't like Thursdays...

"It's annoying for players. I don't know one player that likes it. I really don't know a fan that likes it, either. Nobody is ready to play physically after a Sunday game. But you've got to go out there and do it," Arian Foster on Thursday games.

"You realise once the game starts, it's football. There's no use complaining or whining about anything. It's what you do," Colts QB Andrew Luck not so worried.

Watch the Colts @ Texans live on Sky Sports 2 at 1.25am on Friday morning.