Richardson, though, was put under heavy pressure on both his second-and-15 and third-and-15 snaps, leading to an incompletion and a sack. Rigoberto Sanchez punted the ball back to the Texans, who ran the ball three times and punted back to the Colts with about a minute left.
Without any timeouts, Richardson scrambled for 26 yards but stayed in bounds, keeping the clock running. He threw incomplete on the next three plays, leading to a do-or-die fourth-and-10 with 14 seconds to go on the Colts’ 35-yard line. Richardson completed a check down to running back Trey Sermon, and with one second left spiked the ball on the Colts’ 49-yard line.
Richardson was sacked on the final play, ending the game.
The loss effectively drops the Colts (4-4) three games behind the Texans (6-2), who now own the head-to-head tiebreaker in the 2024 season series.
The Colts jumped out to an early lead when Richardson connected with a wide-open Josh Downs for a 69-yard touchdown. It was the Colts’ fourth play of 50 or more yards against the Texans in 2024; Houston hasn’t allowed a play of 50-plus yards in any of their other games this season.