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

The Indianapolis Colts to the Houston Texans 26-23 on Sunday in overtime, blowing a 14 point lead in the final minutes of regulation.

It was an ugly finish to the game for the Colts, but let's take a look at the snap counts from the game anyway to identify and point out some things of note:

Offense:

Notes:

• The Colts kept the same starting offensive line this week as they had a week ago, as Joe Haeg once again started at right tackle and Denzelle Good once again started at right guard - and all five starters played 100% of the snaps.
• With so many injuries at the wide receiver position, it was T.Y. Hilton and then everyone else when it comes to the snap counts.  Hilton played all but one snap (73), while Phillip Dorsett (55), Chester Rogers (53), and Quan Bray (1) were the other wideouts.  Dorsett and Bray both left the game early due to injury, leaving only Hilton and Rogers by the end of the game.  Hilton had a solid game - racking up 49 yards on three catches - but Rogers was really impressive, as he stepped up and caught four passes for 63 yards (on four targets).  The longest play of the game for the Colts was made by Rogers, who caught a short pass and then did the rest, spinning out of the tackle and taking off running for plenty of yards after the catch on a 36-yard gain.  Rogers really stepped up and impressed in a larger role, which is an encouraging sign for this offense.
• The tight end position also suffered some injuries on Sunday but also saw some guys step up.  After Dwayne Allen left early with an ankle injury, Jack Doyle and Erik Swoope did a nice job in expanded roles.  Doyle caught four passes for 53 yards and a touchdown, while Swoope caught two passes for 42 yards (including a 35-yard gain).  Between Doyle, Swoope, and Allen combined, the tight ends caught seven passes (on nine targets) for 104 yards and a touchdown on Sunday for Indianapolis.
• The thing many fans have been clamoring for over the past several weeks happened on Sunday, as Robert Turbin played more snaps (18) than Josh Ferguson (9), who saw his workload significantly decreased.  But it didn't work, despite every fan seemingly thinking that Ferguson was the problem.  Turbin rushed three times for two yards and caught four passes for 22 yards.  His 24 total yards were fewer than Ferguson's total in four of the team's first five games.  I'm not saying Ferguson is the answer, but the answer many Colts fans had suggested didn't work out on Sunday.  The good news, though, is that Frank Gore continued to produce and continued to play the majority of the snaps, rushing for 106 yards.

Defense:

Notes:

• Starting in place of Patrick Robinson, Rashaan Melvin played most of the snaps (67) and did a good job.  In fact, I was impressed with the trio of cornerbacks in Vontae Davis, Rashaan Melvin, and Darius Butler.  Davis did a very good job of limiting DeAndre Hopkins, and despite the fact that the team was facing Brock Osweiler at quarterback I thought the corners did a very good job.
• Arthur Jones played 41 snaps in his season debut, the third-most of any Colts defensive lineman.
• Robert Mathis finally notched his first sack of the season on Sunday, stripping the ball from Brock Osweiler on an early third down.  After that, however, Mathis really didn't do much.
• The inside linebacker snap counts are surprising: Josh McNary played 35 snaps, while Antonio Morrison played just one.  Morrison has had his struggles this year, but it's very strange that the team didn't give him any more than one snap on Sunday, particularly with how many questions they have at the position.
• Along those lines, take a look at the safety snap counts too: Clayton Geathers and Mike Adams both played all but one snap, while T.J. Green was in on 37 of the 71 snaps.  What that means is that about half the time the Colts had three safeties on the field, which gives them flexibility and is the most we've seen them use that this year.

Special Teams:

(Note: Only those playing more than 50% of the special teams snaps appear here, so this is not the entire list):

Notes:

• Josh McNary and Matthias Farley played the most special teams snaps, which is no surprise - those two have been leading the way for pretty much the entire season in this category.
• Chris Carter, who was just signed last week, played half of the special teams snaps on Sunday.