Colts week 15 snap counts vs. Texans: Notes and thoughts from the Colts' loss

In their biggest game of the season, the Indianapolis Colts fell flat.  They amassed just 190 yards of total offense and lost 16-10 to the Houston Texans, who were quarterbacked by Brandon Weeden.  It was another bad loss in a year that has been full of them, and this one likely took them out of the playoffs.

Before moving on from the game, however, let's take a look at the snap counts from the Colts in the game and see what we can learn from them.

Offense:

Contrary to popular opinion, the Colts actually did play on offense yesterday - 54 snaps, to be precise.  Too bad they managed just 190 yards and ten points in those 54 snaps.

In his return to the field after missing three weeks due to injury, Anthony Castonzo played all 54 snaps.

Dwayne Allen played 72% of the snaps on Sunday, a surprise to me after watching the game.  He didn't seem to have a huge impact on the game, and yet he saw a lot of playing time.  I don't put a ton of stock into Pro Football Focus ratings, but for what it's worth, Allen was their second-lowest rated tight end this week out of 54 players, mainly because of poor run blocking.

Matt Hasselbeck again fought through injuries on Sunday but didn't play 100% of the snaps for the third straight week.  He played 93% of them this time and came back in after further injuries, but it was clear that he was really hurting.

The Colts used their number two running back sparingly, as Dan Herron only played seven snaps and Zurlon Tipton played just five snaps.  It is clear that Frank Gore is the team's workhorse, playing 38 snaps.

I'll have to go back to the tape to see why, but after catching two passes on the opening drive, T.Y. Hilton (who played the most of any skill position player) only caught one more pass the rest of the game.  Actually, I probably know a large part of why that was - the passing offense wasn't effective at all, averaging just 4.4 yards per pass and completing 56.3% of them.

Defense:

David Parry and Zach Kerr equally split reps with 42 snaps each.  Parry seems to have really been struggling recently, perhaps hitting a rookie slump.  Either way, hopefully he can get things figured out and finish his rookie season strong.

Jerrell Freeman, returning from injury, played 84% of the snaps.  His return is a huge boost to the defense.  According to PFF, he recorded seven tackles and five stops, finishing as their fifth-highest rated inside linebacker of the week.

We really criticized him earlier in the season and for good reason, but Trent Cole has stepped up in recent weeks.  He has recorded a sack in back-to-back games, and according to PFF he had four quarterback pressures on just 12 pass rush attempts.

One last note from PFF: Vontae Davis had a solid day defending DeAndre Hopkins (one of the best wide receivers in the league), as though he allowed seven receptions on ten targets, he allowed 66 yards to Hopkins while also breaking up a pass and intercepting another.

Special Teams:

Clayton Geathers and Josh McNary tied for the team lead with 24 special teams snaps on Sunday.

It's great to see Andy Studebaker back on this list, as he was a terrific special teams player for the Colts over the past two years.  In his first game back, Stude played 21 special teams snaps.