HOUSTON -- J.J. Watt considered his emotions before offering them. They were complicated, a mixture of frustration and optimism, because he liked what he saw out of his team for most of Thursday night's game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"It is a tough loss; it is frustrating," Watt said after his Houston Texans lost 33-28 and fell to 3-3 on the season, a game behind the Colts in the AFC South. "But I really don't think that it's -- it's definitely not time to panic. There is no doubt about that. It's not time to panic. The way this team fights, and the way that these guys battle, and the way we go out there and we give what we have. We just can't give team 24 points to start a game."
The Texans' mistakes are fixable. They are so fixable, in fact, that they're fixing them during the games. Despite that, again, it wasn't enough. Thursday night, they got a big game from their biggest name, and that wasn't enough.
"I don't know, seriously," Texans coach Bill O'Brien said when asked how to avoid slow starts. "We've got a week and a couple of days to figure things out. That's one of the things we've got to figure out."
That dismal first quarter, indeed, was what lost the game. That first quarter in which nothing went right for Houston. The Texans' offense went three-and-out on every first-quarter drive. The defense gave up 24 points. Special teams was caught off guard on a surprise onside kick immediately after the Colts kicked a field goal on their first drive.
Watt was right on another point, too: The Texans didn't quit, as is becoming their trend after slow starts that are typically limited to offense but on Thursday night permeated every phase of the game.
Watt was a bright spot, as he often is, especially at home this season. He sacked Colts quarterback Andrew Luck twice. He batted three of Luck's passes, tying a career high he matched from three other games. Oh, and then there was that touchdown.
"Big play, but at the end of the day, not enough," Watt said. "Gotta find a way to do more."
For the third time this season, Watt found the end zone. This time, he picked up a fumbled ball and ran it 45 yards for a touchdown, then danced in the end zone, better than he'd danced for his first two touchdowns. He's had practice now. Watt became the first defensive lineman since William "Refrigerator" Perry in 1985 to score three touchdowns in one season.
That touchdown with 10:36 to play in the fourth quarter brought Houston's comeback bid to an apex. The Texans were within five points, needing another stop and then some help from an offense that had provided three touchdowns already.
They got the stop, but receiver Andre Johnson fumbled the ball away on the ensuing drive, a mistake he said lost the game.
Then, Watt went back to work. He tackled Ahmad Bradshaw for a loss of 2 yards on a second down at the Texans' 41. On third down, he batted a pass, ensuring the Texans' offense got the ball back. But a fumble by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick with 1:48 remaining effectively ended the most competitive Thursday night game so far this season.
The effort epitomized that of a team which outscored its opponent 28-9 in quarters 2 through 4. Across the board, things got better as the game progressed. Even Fitzpatrick, a player whose job security many fans question, had a 118.8 passer rating in the second half and a 124.1 passer rating in the second quarter after a 39.6 rating in the first.
This is not the first time we've seen a slow start followed by a recovery or a team showing it can do what it needs to but just doesn't do it consistently. Without a quarterback with game-changing ability, the Texans need everything else to go right. In that abysmal first quarter Thursday night, almost nothing did.
It's not time to panic, as Watt said. It's time for the Texans to figure out how to begin the game playing as well as they do late when urgency increases.
