Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked a career-best six field goals, including the go-ahead 43-yarder with 12 seconds remaining, as the host Houston Texans defeated the Indianapolis Colts 38-30 on Sunday afternoon.
The victory was the ninth in a row for Houston (12-5), which will be the No. 5 seed in the AFC and will visit the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round on Jan. 12.
The loss was the seventh straight for the Colts (8-9). Blake Grupe kicked a 22-yard field goal with 2:39 remaining to give Indianapolis a 30-29 lead.
Houston was in the running for the AFC South crown, but the Jacksonville Jaguars pounded the Tennessee Titans 41-7 to win the title.
With the Jaguars well ahead in their game, the Texans rested several starters in the second half, including C.J. Stroud, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 169 yards and one touchdown in the first half. Davis Mills was 3-of-9 passing for 36 yards in the second half.
“Of course, I saw the score of the game and Jacksonville was up,” DeMeco Ryans said of Houston pulling some starters in the second half. “We got a few guys out, I guess. That’s the whole thing about… Everybody talking about resting starters. It’s hard to take everybody out. You only get 48 guys to go play on game day, so it’s hard to take everybody out. But when we saw where they (the Jaguars) were in that game and they were up and had a pretty big lead. So, I pulled out selected guys when I could.”
Jayden Higgins caught a touchdown pass for Houston. Tommy Togiai scored on a 17-yard fumble to end the game when Indianapolis’ lateral-fest backfired. It was Togiai’s first career touchdown.
Riley Leonard completed 21 of 34 passes for 270 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for the Colts in his first NFL start. Colts coach Shane Steichen said Leonard “did some good things,” but the end result sparked a familiar feeling in the postgame locker room.
“It was frustrating. Yeah, the last half of the season for sure, that’s what it’s been,” Steichen said. “Not finding ways to finish. We have to work tirelessly to get that fixed.”
Alec Pierce caught four passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns before being ejected late in the third quarter for making contact with an official.
“He was just talking to the official, they said he bumped into him and that was a call,” Steichen said. “Obviously, Alec did not mean to do that. Alec’s character is top of the line, one of the best dudes on our team. Just an unfortunate situation.”
Leonard scored on a 1-yard run on the Colts’ drive to open the third quarter as his team took a 24-23 lead. Fairbairn kicked a 43-yard field goal to put Houston ahead with 6:53 left before Grupe booted a 39-yard field goal for a 27-26 Colts edge with 1:42 left.
An interception by Alijah Huzzie gave Houston great field position at the Colts’ 33-yard line but the Texans settled for Fairbairn’s 44-yard field goal and a two-point lead with 11:15 left in the game.
Stroud accounted for two touchdowns in the first half as the Texans led 23-17 at the break.
On his first pass attempt of the day, Leonard fired a 66-yard touchdown pass to Pierce between Fairbairn field goals of 51 and 48 yards. Grupe kicked a 50-yard field goal to give the Colts a 10-6 lead with 34 seconds left in the first quarter.
Stroud threw an 11-yard scoring pass to Higgins to give the Texans the lead with 9:34 left in the first half.
Houston’s Danielle Hunter sacked Leonard and forced a fumble that Henry To’oTo’o recovered at the Indianapolis 2-yard line. Stroud scored on the next play to make it 20-10 with 8:32 remaining.
Leonard hit Pierce on an 8-yard scoring pass with 1:25 left before Fairbairn booted a 29-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
–Field Level Media
