Colts beat Texans in coach Pagano's return

Colts head coach Chuck Pagano points toward the crowd as he leaves the field after his team beat the Houston Texans in Indianapolis yesterday. It was Pagano?s first game back since announcing in September that he had been diagnosed with leukemia. (Reuters)

Report an error

TORONTO?-?

Last Monday, at the end of his first day back to work after a season-long battle with leukemia, Chuck Pagano walked out of his office and flipped a switch to extinguish the lights.

It was the first time those lights had been turned off since the Colts head coach announced his diagnosis to the team in September, handing over the coaching reins to offensive coordinator Bruce Arians while he under went treatment.

Arians had asked that the lights remain on in Pagano?s office until the head coach himself returned to the team.

?Only if you?re cut from the cloth that Bruce is cut from, the type of man he is, would you come up with something like that,? Pagano said on Sunday. ?When I walked out of that office on Monday evening and turned that light off for the first time in over three months, it was like victory.?

Sunday?s showdown between the Colts and the favoured Houston Texans, Pagano?s first game back on the sidelines, did not just feel like victory. It was victory, as the Colts made their loudest emotional statement in a season that has been filled with them.

Two weeks after being mauled 29-17 by Houston, a score that didn?t truly reflect how badly outplayed the Colts were, Andrew Luck & Co. handed the Texans their third loss in their past four games, a 28-16 decision.

Coming off a 2-14 campaign in 2011 that netted them Luck as the No. 1 draft choice, the Colts finished at 11-5 and demolished the 12-4 Texans? hopes of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

All Houston needed was a win in this last game to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Super Bowl tournament. As it turned out, victories by both the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos knocked the Texans all the way down to the No. 3 seed, which means they don?t even get a bye in the first round.

The game had no effect on the Colts? playoff standing (they?ll go in as the No. 5 seed in the AFC) but it did give them some much-needed momentum. After two lacklustre games in a row, the Colts were by far the sharper outfit and will go into next week on a high they share with their inspirational coach.

?The minute you get the diagnosis, it?s like getting hit across the head with a baseball bat,? said Pagano. ?You feel helpless, you feel powerless because you can?t do a thing about it.?

It was even worse that Pagano had to sit back and watch games on TV.

?I had to watch a game with my wife for the first time in 24 years of marriage,? he said. ?I love her to death but I don?t want to watch any more games with her and I?m sure she doesn?t want to watch with me either.?

When Pagano started treatment, the Colts were 1-2 after three games. In the meantime, under Arians, the Colts won nine of their next 12

?I told them, ?What you guys have done, am I shocked? You know I?m not.? This is what we talked about from day one,? he said. ?They just went out and did it.?

So solid all season long, the Texans are a bit of a mess right now. The Colts burned them for two huge plays in the second half that sealed the win. After Houston had taken a 16-14 lead on a 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter, Deji Karim returned the ensuing kickoff 101 yards to put Indianapolis up 21-16.

Early in the fourth quarter, Luck applied the back-breaker when he completed a 70-yard TD pass to rookie T. Y. Hilton.

When Arian Foster ran in for a third-quarter TD from 14 yards out, it was Houston?s first TD in their previous eight quarters.

Last week Luck surpassed Cam Newton?s NFL rookie passing yards record and added 184 yards Sunday to extend his own record to 4,235 yards.

BIG DAY, LITTLE COMFORT

The Tennessee Titans put on a record-setting display Sunday afternoon in their season finale, but it didn?t do much to take the sting off another lousy season in Nashville.

Return man Darius Reynaud and rookie linebacker Zach Brown each scored a pair of touchdowns, Reynaud on two punt returns and Brown on two interception returns in a 38-20 victory over the pathetic Jacksonville Jaguars.

With Jacksonville leading 14-7 late in the second quarter, Brown picked off a Chad Henne pass and ran it back 79 yards to tie the game. A moment later Reynaud returned a punt 79 yards to give Tennessee its halftime lead.

Early in the third quarter, Reynaud ran back another punt, this one from 81 yards to build a 14-point lead. Less than a minute later, Brown grabbed his second pick-six, taking it back 30 yards. In all, Henne threw three picks on the day as the Jags lost for the 12th time in their last 13 games to drop to 2-14.

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/12/30/colts-beat-texans-in-coach-paganos-return

election day Electoral College map nyc marathon nyc marathon willie nelson khloe kardashian Wreck It Ralph