There are a few key stats that are worth monitoring in every single NFL game. One of those is the time of possession battle, which the Texans absolutely controlled on Sunday against the Colts.
When it was all said and done, the Texans held the ball for 40 of the game’s 60 total minutes. Easy math tells us that this means the Colts had possession for only 20 minutes.
This then created a huge discrepancy in the number of plays ran. According to ESPN, the Texans ran 76 plays on offense, and the Colts ran just 43. It’s actually quite impressive on the Colts’ part that the game was as close as it was, with three 50-plus yard plays helping to keep them in the mix throughout.
The other side effect of such a lopsided time of possession battle is that the Texans’ defense was likely much more fresh in the fourth quarter than the Colts were.
A lot of this can be attributed to the success–or lack thereof– that each team had in the run game. With the Texans’ picking up over 200 yards on the ground, they were able to put together long sustaining drives, including two scoring drives in the second half that went 6:59 and 7:30.
On the flip side, the Colts’ struggled in the run game. Jonathan Taylor totaled just 48 rushing yards on 16 carries, and instead, the Colts’ offense was often either boom or bust, with quick scores or short possessions.
For any team, overcoming a time of possession battle with such a huge difference is always going to be an extremely tall task.
