Lucas Oil Stadium is gonna be absolutely buzzing Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, not because of some celebration, but because both the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans are still staring down an ugly 0-2 record. This isn’t just another game, folks, it’s a fight for survival in Week 3, and one team is about to get their season back on track while the other sinks deeper into desperation.
Indy’s Desperate Hunt for a Win After Last Year’s Collapse
The Colts are coming into this game off a brutal overtime loss to the Chiefs, 33-30, and they really struggled against Baltimore in Week 1. Talk about a gut punch. You gotta remember, this team started 7-1 last season, with quarterback Daniel Jones in the MVP conversation, before he went down with an Achilles injury. They spiraled, losing their last five games and taking the entire season down with him. Jones is back now, and he looked decent against the Chiefs, throwing for 210 yards. Running back Jonathan Taylor was a beast, racking up 92 yards and two touchdowns in that Chiefs game, giving him 190 yards and four scores for the season already. On defense, DeForest Buckner has 1.5 of the team’s four sacks, so they’ve got some playmakers. The SportsLine Projection Model, which runs 10,000 simulations for every NFL game, actually leans towards an Indy victory in this one.
Texans’ Playoff Hopes Slipping Despite Stroud’s Brilliance
The Texans are also sitting at 0-2, having dropped games to the high-powered Bills and the resurgent Bengals. This is not how anyone in Houston pictured the start of the season, especially after they made a Divisional Round run last year and came into 2026 with legitimate hopes for another deep playoff push. Here’s the kicker: C.J. Stroud has been absolutely solid. He threw for 353 yards against the Bengals, putting him at 627 yards for the season, which is fourth in the entire NFL. He’s got two touchdown passes and, get this, ZERO interceptions. Plus, he’s added 44 rushing yards. The real strength for Houston usually lies on defense, where they led the league in total defense and were second in scoring defense last season. They had 47 sacks in 2025, and this year they already have seven, with only three teams having more. It’s wild that a team with this kind of defense and a QB playing this clean is still winless. Houston has dominated this matchup lately, winning five straight meetings against the Colts.
For what it’s worth, the prediction markets are leaning Houston, with a Texans win trading at $0.58 compared to the Colts at $0.42. They also have the Texans to win by more than 2.5 points at $0.52. More than 42.5 combined points is practically a coin flip at $0.51.
One of these teams is getting their first W on Sunday, and for the loser, that 0-3 start could be impossible to climb out of. The season hangs in the balance for both squads, and you know everyone’s gonna be watching.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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