Official Texans @ Colts Game Thread, 12/22/2011

[Arky]

I've been looking at a few stats in the Texans vs. Colts series. The one I find most curious is "1st downs from penalty". The Texans don't really have a rep as a penalized team, in fact, they are usually in the upper half of the least penalized teams in recent years.

In the NFL, each game, teams normally get 0, 1 or 2 of these per game. 0, 1 and 2 are all common numbers for 1st downs from penalty/game.

In the Texans vs. Colts series (Texan win/loss in parentheses):

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2009

Game 1 @ Indy (L): Texans 1, Colts 6
Game 2 @ Houston (L): Texans 0, Colts 4

Totals for 2009: Texans 1, Colts 10
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2010

Game 1 @ Houston (W): Texans 1, Colts 2
Game 2 @ Indy (L): Texans 2, Colts 1

Totals for 2010: Texans 3, Colts 3 (a "normal" year)
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2011

Game 1 @ Houston (W): Texans 1, Colts 1
Game 2 @ Indy (L): Texans 1, Colts 6

Totals for 2011: Texans 2, Colts 7
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Grand totals last 3 years, first downs from penalty: Texans 6, Colts 20

This genuinely qualifies as lopsided.

Just thought I'd point this out since I wasted probably an hour of my time looking this stuff up. Further fuel to the fire that the NFL is turning into the NBA.

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In all of our analysis on this game, I think someone needs to mention that TJ has a shoulder injury on his throwing arm. Not making excuses - it just needs to be mentioned. That "hail Mary" pass as time expired was pretty ugly....