Loss leaves Colts’ playoff hopes on life support

This 16-10 loss to the Texans does not mathematically eliminate the Colts from playoff contention, but their postseason chances are very slim.

Over the past two weeks, the 40-year-old backup has fought through neck, shoulder and rib injuries and in Sunday’s loss, he hurt his jaw. He got that when Houston’s Whitney Mercilus creamed him on a fourth quarter pass rush.

“We’ve just got to take care of business”, Cushing said.

Who’s Left on the Schedule: Heading to Tennessee next week shouldn’t be a challenge. It was a tough day.

“It’s my fault all the way”, Hasselbeck said. “I feel like I let everybody down by not having a more accurate throw, I guess”.

This is what a beaten, and cornered team, looks like.

The Texans (7-7) took sole possession of the AFC South lead by snapping a two-game losing streak.

Then he found Strong on a screen play on the right side.

A look at the Houston Texans win against the Indianapolis Colts, their first in team history at Indianapolis. Hope for Andrew Luck. I’m voting against trying to continue figuring out why Pagano challenges the wrong plays. “All I worry about is us and us preparing, us working, us doing all the little things”, the coach said. For a Denver team with a championship level defense, finding a way to be consistent offensively is going to be paramount come playoff time. “We’re not going down that road”.

The Colts have already traveled plenty of uncharted territory this season, but at least their tortuous journey appears near an end, however merciless. It all seemed so fitting.

They have been haunted by missed opportunities. After quarterback T.J. Yates went down with under 2 minutes before the half, Weeden entered the drive and finished the “2-minute drill” by getting the team in a position to add a field goal to the score, making it 10-3 Indianapolis before halftime.

“Woulda, coulda, shoulda kind of situations”, Hasselbeck said. “All we had to do was seize it and we didn’t”. I don’t know what he is but he’s not the same guy we saw earlier. “It happens so fast”. They have 36 points in the last three games combined, and one of the scores came on a defensive touchdown. They were supposed to be a touchdown machine. The Vikings can still win the NFC North, but they’ll need a lot of help. Quarles was signed to the Indianapolis practice squad on December 18 and was with the team for most of the 2014 season.

After halftime the game was flipped on its head, as the Steelers outscored Denver 21-0 in the second half to pull out a 34-27 victory.

“(The doctors) clear him, he’s 100 percent and then we get some practices under his belt”, Pagano said. Peering behind the scenes in Houston, the cracks were starting to show for a team that had gone 9-7 a year earlier: The shaky health of star running back Arian Foster, the lack of a number two wide receiver and O’Brien’s wishy-washy status on naming a starting quarterback.

So now what? This is unusual and unwelcome territory for the Colts. The Panthers and Cardinals have clinched their divisions, and while the Green Bay Packers haven’t clinched their division, they have clinched a playoff spot.

And after all the misery of the past few weeks (and this whole season) the Colts could still make the playoffs.