10 Colts thoughts on a 23-20 gutting loss to the Texans

HOUSTON -- Seven quick thoughts on the Colts' 23-20 loss to the Texans at NRG Stadium:

1. Another crazy game that had a similar feel to much of it: The Colts have some great players who do some great things -- think Jonathan Taylor, DeForest Buckner, Kenny Moore II and Josh Downs -- but they wind up trailing by two scores due to their flaws and can't quite climb back despite some explosive tries.

It's the kind of game that feels like a big setback in the AFC South, as the Texans are now two games up but also have the head-to-head tiebreaker, and the Colts are staring down the toughest stretch of their schedule.

It had some absolutely wild moments, like that interception at the end of the first half, Downs' explosive plays, key penalties, Dayo Odeyingbo's fumble recovery and more.

And it gives us a lot to get into, from Anthony Richardson's erratic play to Taylor's big return to Buckner's dominance to Shane Steichen's troubling tendencies and more.

Colts score: Anthony Richardson, Colts suffer gut-wrenching loss vs Texans

What is going on with Anthony Richardson?

2. This was another crazy Richardson game in so many ways.

He had the sharp start, despite the box score, showing improved footwork and ball placement on five straight passes on the first drive.

He had the explosive throw to Downs that was really about Downs and the play design but went for a 69-yard touchdown.

He had some heroic escapes of sacks for a second straight week.

He had miss after miss after miss in the middle quarters of the game to finish 10 of 31 for 175 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

He had the mysterious one-play departure with the Colts in the red zone.

And then he didn't get the Hail Mary throw off at the end.

As the NFL's youngest starting quarterback, he has to go through this right now to see where this can go. And there's a lot of ways the Colts can use him better or minimize his weaknesses more in the interim. But he also needs to build some positive momentum as a passer for a change. Week 1 against the Texans feels so long ago.

Why did Anthony Richardson tap out of the game?

3. The play where Richardson tapped out in the third quarter was indeed strange. It was not an injury situation, just a matter of him being winded after scrambling around like a mad man the previous two plays, which included the scramble touchdown pass to Alec Pierce nullified by an offensive pass interference call and a survival play to get back to the line of scrimmage for a 0-yard sack.

“Tired, I ain’t gonna lie," Richardson said. "That was a lot of running right there that I did, and I didn’t think I was gonna be able to go that next play. So, I just told (Steichen) I needed a break right there.”

Richardson surely was winded, and that happens from time to time with running quarterbacks, and it usually involves a screen pass or a handoff on the next play to get that breather. And that's what the Colts drew up with Taylor on 3rd-and-Goal from the 23 -- only Joe Flacco was in the game for the handoff.

I don't get why Richardson couldn't have stayed in for that handoff. Given the situation and the play call, it wasn't a big deal in a football sense, but it's a tough optic for a young quarterback trying to become the face of the franchise.

4. Richardson did take an outrageous number of hits today, which is ironic for a game where the Colts only called two designed runs for him all day. But he took five sacks and survived four other quarterback hits as the Texans mixed in blitzes but also just plainly won up front, especially as the game wore on and the passing plays added up.

It was a bad combination of Steichen's obsession with explosive plays that take a slower development, of Richardson's youth in the pre-snap game and of an offensive line that played its worst game of the season at the wrong moments.

But it's troubling when the Colts aren't using Richardson for his best skill in an effort to keep hits off of him and they're racking up this way anyway.

5. This game was a showcase of why these two teams engaged in a bidding war for Danielle Hunter this offseason.

Hunter was the rare player the Colts actually wanted to go in on in free agency. They saw a dominant edge rusher as their missing piece on defense, wanting a player who could win against maximum protection and who could seal a game in the fourth quarter. They were willing to go up to his two-year, $49 million final deal, a source told IndyStar, but theirs didn't have the same guarantees as the Texans, who were also Hunter's hometown team.

Hunter was exactly that kind of game-sealing rusher in this one. When the Colts got the ball back inexplicably on Odeyingbo's fumble recovery and had a jolt of momentum, he squeezed the life dead by toasting Bernhard Raimann on an inside move before slamming Richardson to the turf. He then scored his third quarterback hit by rushing around the entire Colts offensive line on the Hail Mary to keep Richardson from getting a pass off.

Laiatu Latu might someday grow into the player Hunter is, but Hunter is that right now, and it's a key reason the Texans are alone in first place in the AFC South.

6. This needed to be a run-heavy game for the Colts, and not only because Taylor was back and playing in the stadium where he always kills the Texans. Houston loves to live in the two-high safety shell, and it was going to be more on alert for the deep pass after the Colts ripped off three 50-plus yard completions in the opener. Also, the Texans' top two linebackers were not playing in Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To'oToo.

But that is not what Shane Steichen opted to do.

The Colts threw on all five plays on their first drive. By halftime, they had run the ball just a handful of times, versus 13 passes. And they had completed just two of them, with one interception.

The best actual drive the Colts had, putting aside Downs' 69-yard scoring catch on a busted coverage, was when they leaned into that ground game in the middle of the third quarter with a mix of Taylor runs to the perimeter and Richardson designed runs.

What Shane Steichen needs to do

7. It feels like Steichen is trying to prove a point at the moment about either his "throw to score, run to win" philosophy or his ability to turn Richardson into a more accurate passer in the short-term.

One week after he blamed himself for the Colts' inability to score points amid a barrage of Dolphins blitzes and saying he didn't set Richardson up to have much success, he did much of the same this week.

Only blitzes weren't the problem. The problem was the execution of the passing game against the Texans' two-high safety defense with where Richardson and the pieces are at this level of their growth together.

8. Think about this: They have the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL, who was completing 53.5% of his passes through nine career starts. Their No. 1 wide receiver, Michael Pittman Jr., is playing at about 50% through a painful lower back issue. They don't have tight ends or running backs who add to the intermediate passing game. And Adonai Mitchell is going through a number of rookie struggles.

So when the attention gets strong on Josh Downs or Alec Pierce, that's how you wind up with targets to Will Mallory, Mitchell, Tyler Goodson or Kylen Granson on critical downs. It's asking too much of Richardson, and of the way this team is built. A team that, by the way, has the No. 3 highest-paid running back and one of the highest-paid offensive lines in the league.

Colts missed DeForest Buckner and Jonathan Taylor

9. Buckner and Taylor are the two best players the Colts have and both showed out like mad men in their returns from high-ankle sprains.

Taylor was the engine the Colts should have used from the get-go, showing off fresh burst, the ability to power through tackle attempts and the trademark stop-and-start ability to set up blocks and consistently rip off chunk gains. He finished with 20 carries for 105 yards and a touchdown, marking his third 100-yard performance in five games this season.

Buckner was on limited snaps after five weeks off, but he was a menace on passing downs, just walking interior linemen back and throwing hands up in the face of Stroud to force rushed incompletions. He was winning so badly early in the game that Houston benched its starting left guard, Kenyon Green, only to bring him back in later after his replacement suffered a brain injury. By then, Buckner was living in Green's head and the Texans were trying to move the pocket to help Stroud to survive.

10. The issue for the Colts defense was that with Buckner off the field on run downs, they weren't effective enough at winning those moments to let their best player truly wreck the game. This was a much improved effort compared to Week 1, of course, but Mixon broke some tackles and ripped off a 14-yard touchdown run that Zaire Franklin misplayed to allow an easy score.

The Colts defense overall held in this one, which was partly due to Nico Collins' absence and partly due to their pass rush having its best game since Week 1, as well as an overall improved tackling effort. But they just couldn't force a Stroud mistake under that pressure, as the middle of the field was too open and Stroud was too sharp at finding those players under duress.

They gave the offense a chance to win, but not enough pieces showed up on that side of the ball outside of Taylor and Downs, especially on the critical downs.

See you next week from Minneapolis for Sunday Night Football, where the Richardson narratives will only get louder and where the Colts need to beat the Vikings to stay alive in the playoff race.