T.Y. Hilton was Dominant on Thursday Night

All week, T.Y. Hilton was saying that he felt like he was going to have a big game.  "And I did," Hilton said following the Colts' 33-28 victory over the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football.

Hilton had a dominant performance, catching 9 times (on 9 targets) for 223 yards and a touchdown.  His 223 receiving yards finished just one yard shy of the single-game franchise record set by Raymond Berry - and matched by Hilton in last year's playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs.  He had over 140 yards in the first quarter alone.

Entering the game, T.Y. Hilton was ninth in the league in receiving yards (with 381).  On this day after the game, while we acknowledge that Hilton has played in one more game than anyone else, he now leads the NFL in receiving yards with 604.  He's also first in the NFL in receptions with 40.

Against the Texans, Hilton has always been terrific.  In five career games against Houston, he has caught 31 passes for 611 yards and 6 touchdowns.  I don't know what it is about the Texans, but I'm glad the Colts and Hilton get to play them twice a year.  It's not just the Texans, however.  I think that we saw tonight what we've known for a while: that T.Y. Hilton is the Colts' best wide receiver.  I said it all offseason, and we saw it clearly once again on Thursday night.

"He played outstanding," head coach Chuck Pagano said.  "He's a game wrecker, a game breaker.  We all know that.  He came up big."

"It just seems like every time against the Texans, for some reason, something just ignited in him and he's able to go off," said tight end Dwayne Allen.  "He's a dynamic player for us and we've been expecting that type of play from him all year, so it's nice to see that level of play from him on Thursday Night Football."

"He's a great receiver; it shows it practice and preparation all week," running back Ahmad Bradshaw noted.  "He came out today fresh and it showed.  For running backs, he opens up the box for us.  He's a deep threat for us and he opens up our offense and makes plays down field and it showed today."

"He is great, man. He was fantastic," quarterback Andrew Luck agreed.  "You obviously see what he can do on the football field and he got behind the defense. It looked like he was going to get shut out of the end zone another time when they reversed that call but I'm glad he finally got in the end zone this year. I think he was a yard or two off the franchise record for yardage in a game. He's such a great teammate, you can't help but be super, super happy for him. It's a unit effort when T.Y. goes off like that. That's Reg (Reggie Wayne) opening guys up. That's Fleener, That's Hakeem. That's Dwayne. That's Jack Doyle. That's the running backs doing their jobs so great, great effort by the guys."

The Colts players, coaches, and fans weren't the only ones to notice Hilton's performance, however.  If you noticed his celebration after his touchdown, it was one of LeBron James' celebrations.  The basketball star took notice of the celebration and Hilton's performance:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>S/O that boy <a href="https://twitter.com/TYHilton13">@TYHilton13</a>! Homie went ham lastnight. And swag out on em after the TD catch. Yes sir!!</p>&mdash; LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/520593601563475970">October 10, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a heck of a performance from T.Y. Hilton, but he wasn't surprised by it.  Neither are Colts fans, but that doesn't make it any less impressive.