Red Room Where the Writers Are

The Indianapolis Colts play the Houston Texans this week. This is a good omen for the Colts’ hopes to advance to 8-0, because they have flat out owned the Texans. This will also be the second time in five years that the Colts have faced the Texans while sporting a record of 7-0 with a chance to advance to 8-0, and the fourth time in the last five years Houston has faced an undefeated Indianapolis team.

Unfortunately, the head-to-head tally between these two division rivals has been nothing but heartache for the Texans.

In 14 meetings between the two franchises, the Colts are 13-1, with five straight victories, and have outscored the Texans 432 to 253.

That means the Colts are averaging 31 points per game against the Texans, while Houston is averaging a mere 18 points per meeting. Since 2004, Indianapolis has failed only twice at scoring 30 points or more in a game against the Texans, the last time being Week 16 in 2006; the year the Colts won the Super Bowl.

In the last 10 meetings between the Colts and the Texans, Indianapolis has averaged 34 points per game.

The only team the Colts have dominated anywhere near to the scale that they own the Texans is the Atlanta Falcons. Indianapolis holds a record of 13-1 against the Falcons, and have outscored them 401 to 199. The only time the Colts have ever lost to Atlanta was Week 14 in 1998, the year the Colts went 3-13, and Peyton Manning—the first overall pick in the 1998 Draft— was a rookie starter. Manning was just 19-for-27 in that game for 159 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. That was also the year that the Falcons went 14-2 and their victory over the Colts was part of a nine-game winning streak to finish out the season. The Falcons would advance to the Super Bowl, only to lose 34-19 to the Denver Broncos.

Who was the Falcons’ quarterback that year? Chris Chandler, who had been drafted by the Indianapolis Colts 10 years earlier in the third round of the 1988 Draft. The 1998 season would be the only year Chandler would ever throw for over 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns, earning him his second straight Pro Bowl appearance, the only two of his career.

Now, let’s tie all that together: In his rookie season, Chandler went 9-4 as the starting quarterback for the Colts. He didn’t do great, but the Colts won. He threw 8 touchdowns and 12 picks and managed just 1,619 yards. It was enough to keep a hold on the starting job for the following year. In Week 3 of the 1989 season, the Colts eked out a sloppy victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Chandler was awful in that matchup, going 5-for-15 for 71 yards with an interception. The Colts won that game 13-9 with a 4th quarter one-yard touchdown run by former starting quarterback Jack Trudeau, Indy’s second round pick from the 1986 Draft, who had been called in to replace Chandler. Because of his atrocious play against the Falcons, it would be the last game Chandler would ever quarterback for the Colts. The following year, the Colts selected Jeff George with the first overall pick in the 1990 Draft and Chandler was shuffled out the door to begin his journeyman career with Tampa Bay.

After time with Tampa Bay, the Phoenix Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams, in 1995, Chandler found his way to the Houston Oilers. He was again mediocre. In 1996, the Oilers drafted Steve McNair with the third overall pick and though Chandler started the first 12 games for Houston, he eventually lost the job to McNair and was traded to Atlanta for a fourth round pick.

In 1997, the Houston Oilers would become the Tennessee Oilers, leaving a vacancy that the Texans would ultimately fill. But, who did the Oilers select with that fourth round pick they got from Atlanta? Wide receiver Derrick Mason. Now, this worked out great for Tennessee; Mason and McNair would not only become great friends but also a great quarterback/wide receiver duo. And also because their other pick in that round was wasted on defensive end Pratt Lyons—that’s right, THE Pratt Lyons; no one else has ever heard of him either. The Oilers traded picks with the New Orleans Saints to get Lyons, basically giving up wide receiver Keith Poole and tight end Nicky Savoie.

The last interesting piece in this epic saga is that at the start of the 1997 Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs traded their first, third, fourth and sixth round picks to Tennessee in exchange for the Oilers’ first and fourth round picks. The Chiefs drafted tight end Tony Gonzalez and quarterback Pat Barnes with those picks. Gonzalez is legendary, a no-brainer Hall of Famer who is now with the Atlanta Falcons.

Barnes never threw a pass in the NFL. He was released by the Chiefs and his only NFL game would be a brief on-field appearance with the San Francisco 49ers as a back-up to Jeff Garcia and Steve Young in 1999.