The Houston Texans walked away with a 20-20 tie against the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at NRG Stadium.
It’s a game that might leave them confused regarding exactly how to feel about the final outcome. The team’s highest highs included a 20-3 lead where everything was clicking on both offense and defense. The lowest lows featured a fourth quarter where Indianapolis eviscerated that lead and nearly won the game in overtime if not for a missed kick.
To no surprise, second-year quarterback Davis Mills also brought a similar degree of volatility to his performance. The Stanford product finished 23 of 37 with 240 yards and two touchdowns. His only turnover of the day was a costly fumble in the fourth quarter that helped to fuel a late comeback from Indianapolis quarterback Matt Ryan.
Mills started slow as the offense went three-and-out during their first two drives. This included a third down pass to Chris Conley that was dropped but certainly could have used better ball placement from Mills to hit his receiver in stride.
Davis Mills misses a wide open Chris Conley
Have to put your receivers in position to run after the catch in Pep Hamilton’s offense. It’ll be Mills’ biggest responsibility this season #WeAreTexans
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) September 11, 2022
The offense picked up after that and much of the second and third quarter featured Mills perfectly operating the innovative offense that offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton had preached all off-season. The team ran the ball out of multiple formations and frustrated Indianapolis linebackers with almost all of their passing sets coming out of play action.
The two touchdown passes from Mills both went to recently signed tight end OJ Howard. The first was a beautiful ball up the seem that featured some of the best placement of Mills young career while the second saw Mills exploit a broken coverage from the Colts following an excellent fake from play-action.
I still have no idea how to feel about this Houston team after today? Some of the highs were really high, this ball placement from Davis can’t get much better #WeAreTexans pic.twitter.com/DCAPUdeTEN
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) September 11, 2022
Mills, like the rest of his teammates, unfortunately stuttered during the fourth quarter. The team struggled to gain even first downs and Hamilton seemingly abandoned the play action once running back Rex Burkhead was unable to gain traction on the ground.
The fourth quarter and overtime both featured untimely sacks from Mills that reflected his relative youth at the position and might have severely hurt the team’s chances to win the game outright. When faced with a fourth-and-3 on the team’s final drive, coach Lovie Smith simply opted to punt and take the tie.
It was the kind of performance from Mills that left fans wanting to see more with no further conviction on No. 10’s status as their future franchise signal caller.
Next week Mills will face a loaded Denver Broncos defense, which will be a better barometer for where the second-year quarterback is at.
