was at home struggling with an injured shoulder that cost him the entire season.On Saturday he wrote a happy ending to the latest chapter of his comeback season Jordan Wilkins Color Rush Jersey , throwing for 222 yards and two touchdowns and the Indianapolis Colts raced out to a big lead and cruised to a 21-7 win over the Houston Texans in the wild-card game. Luck put on a show in his hometown in a stadium where he'd attended games throughout childhood and played in them since high school, throwing for 191 yards and two touchdowns before halftime to help the Colts (11-6) build a 21-0 lead.He denied feeling "at home" at NRG Stadium, but admitted to having warm feelings for the city he grew up in and where his grandparents and many friends still reside."But it's still an away stadium," he said. "It was very loud, very energetic, but fun to win, certainly."Running back Marlon Mack had 148 yards and a touchdown for Indianapolis, which advances to face the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round next weekend."We know we have an elite quarterback and we can throw it for 400 and win when we have to," Indianapolis coach Frank Reich said."But the margin for error in playoff football when you try to do it that way is very thin. When you can win like this — running the football and stopping it — that's just everything."Houston (11-6), which overcame a 0-3 start to win the AFC South, gave up too many big plays and couldn't get anything going on offense in the first half to fall into the huge hole.Deshaun Watson, who was sacked an NFL-leading 62 times in the regular season, was sacked three times and hit eight more times in a disappointing playoff debut. He finished with 235 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception."Just a lack of execution on our part," Watson said. "We didn't make plays. I didn't make plays. Communication was a little off. You just got to give the Colts the credit."The Colts, who opened the season 1-5, continued an impressive run by winning their fifth straight and for the 10th time in 11 games. Saturday was their first playoff appearance since the AFC championship game loss at New England in the "Deflategate" game in the 2014 season.It was another good game in a splendid season for Luck. He threw for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns in the regular season after missing all of 2017 with a shoulder injury.The Texans didn't score until rookie Keke Coutee grabbed a 6-yard touchdown pass to cap a 16-play, 89-yard drive that included a fourth-down conversion that cut it to 21-7 with about 11 minutes left.They led the NFL with nine comeback wins this season, but their attempt at a rally ended on their next possession when Watson's pass on fourth-and-10 from the Indianapolis 24 fell short with about four minutes left.Luck threw for 863 yards with six touchdowns as the teams split two meetings in the regular season. He picked up right where he left off in this one, when he found Eric Ebron on a 6-yard TD pass on their first drive. That play was set up by a 38-yard catch by T.Y. Hilton, who had 63 yards receiving on that drive."We didn't have a lot of guys that made the playoffs so the guys that made the playoffs wanted to go out there and set the tone early, try to get the crowd out of the game," Hilton said. "That's what we did."Hilton didn't have any catches on the next drive, but the Colts still drove down the field easily and made it 14-0 on a 2-yard run by Mack later in the first.Houston went for it on fourth-and-4 from the Indianapolis 45 on its second possession and Watson was intercepted by Kenny Moore II. It was his first interception since he threw two against the Redskins on Nov. 18.The Colts got to the 17 after that before J.J. Watt deflected Luck's pass and he was intercepted by Brandon Dunn. But the Texans couldn't move the ball and had to punt.Indianapolis pushed the lead to 21-0 when Luck connected with Dontrelle Inman on an 18-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter."It's very frustrating when they're able to execute and get their job done," Watt said. "We had a couple of big penalties early in the game as well. But you have to overcome it and you have to find a way to win."The Texans had a fourth-and-1 from the 9 late in the second quarter and went for it again instead of settling for a field goal. The gamble didn't pay off when Watson's pass to DeAndre Hopkins was low and bounced in front of him in the end zone.INJURIESColts: Safety Malik Hooker left in the third quarter with a foot injury. … S Mike Mitchell injured his calf in the third quarter and didn't return.Texans: Safety Justin Reid injured his ribs in the second quarter and didn't return. … Hopkins said he played most of the game with a Grade 3 AC sprain of his right shoulder after injuring it in the first half.UP NEXTColts: Travel to Kansas City where the Chiefs were 7-1 in the regular season.Texans: The Texans have some decisions to make in the offseason with defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and safety Tyrann Mathieu both becoming free agents. They might use the franchise tag to keep Clowney, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft. OverviewOn December 23, 2018 the Indianapolis Colts will host the New York Giants. In this Week 16 match-up I sought to understand our opponent and get a better idea of how they may attack our surging Colts.The Colts have lost to the Giants once in the past twenty (20) years, that loss coming in 2002. Prior to that the Colts hadn’t lost to the often talked about G-Men since 1993 and going back to 1968 (not a typo https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Henry-Anderson-Jersey , the Vietnam War was being waged) our Colts are 8-3 against these Giants. Unfortunately for us, history has nothing to do with the game on Sunday, unless you consider Eli Manning’s career, as the best of it is far in the past. Let’s figure out what we can expect in Week 16. Offensive Scheme When the New York Giants hired Pat Shurmur away from his post as offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, they believed they were getting the man who made Case Keenum look like a top 15 quarterback which is exactly who they got. The biggest problem is he couldn’t bring the Vikings defense with him so while the wins haven’t come for the Giants at the pace they were probably hoping he has managed to improve Eli Manning’s statistical output to the best they’ve been in years. He’s currently on pace to throw only 10 interceptions on the year which would tie the lowest amount he’s had in a single season (as a full time starter) in his career. So what does this offense look like? For answers I turned to my favorite football website, not named Stampede Blue; Inside the Pylon. Nick Turchyn looked at Shurmur’s offense from 2017 and while I’m going to give you excerpts here to paint a coherent but (hopefully) succinct picture this article is worth the read. Your browser does not support HTML5 video.This last paragraph jumped off the page when I read it as it is very consistent with what I’ve seen on tape of these Giants. Lots of swing passes. Also given the aggressive nature of our defense I presume we will see many delayed handoffs this Sunday. If you’ve followed my work very long, you’ve probably seen me talk about play action working regardless of run success. I’m not just making stuff up, but that’s not the point of this article. Turchyn goes on to break down a couple of different play action passes that turned into screens. He then goes into the differences between Ben McAdoo’s West Coast offense and what Shurmur might look to do when he drops this gem:He goes on to show a clip of Manning against the Cowboys in week 14. I am unable to embed the video but it shows exactly what he’s talking about above. Manning wasn’t getting more comfortable. Turchyn goes on to show similarities and differences between McAdoo and Shurmur’s system. He highlights some quick hitting passes and where Manning was successful and where he struggled. The long and short of it is, the Giants will look to establish the run, use play action and get the ball out of Manning’s hand quickly. If the Colts can limit the ground game and force the Giants to throw the ball down the field, it could bode well for the Colts playoff chances. While Shurmur has done all he can to improve the offense he hasn’t been able to overcome all of their deficiencies. The rankings haven’t improved much and they will miss the playoffs for the 8th time in the past decade. For a deeper dive into Pat Shurmer, really go read the entirety of the above article, it is excellent.Despite the Giants overwhelming lack of success, like the Cowboys, analysts year after year talk about them ad nauseam. I’ve been a Giants fan a total of two days in my entire life, each of those two days they’ve made me proud, beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Beyond those two games, like the Cowboys, most of their recent seasons have been irrelevant.Quarterback: I feel it’s important to preface the clips I’m about to show you with this: I pulled these clips before I found the article and subsequent data from the Inside the Pylon article. I need to tell you that because if I weren’t the guy who watched the tape, found the clips and then many, many hours later found an article that perfectly explained what the clips showed, I would assume the guy writing the article was cherry picking to fit his narrative. That’s not how it happened, but it does completely back up everything you’ve read up to this point. Rolling out:Manning does a good job here off of play action, rolling to his right, finding a receiver and delivering a catchable ball under pressure. I would say that he makes a read, but that would imply that he progressed through his reads and I don’t think that’s what happened here at all. It worked out, but you’ll see in the last clip how quickly it can go wrong.Quick hitting throw:This ball comes out quickly on his first read. There’s nothing great about this play, but this play and plays like it are why Manning’s numbers have been good. You can rack up a lot of yards and a great completion percentage without racking up a lot of wins. Longer than 2.5 seconds:Just like Nick Turchyn said Joe Haeg Jersey , if Manning has to hold the ball and progress through reads, his footwork gets sloppy and he is slow to process. That’s exactly what happens here as he fades away and throws a bad pass. RPO-ish:While this play could be confused as a RPO, it’s just a play action pass. Manning was going to his first option all the way, the cornerback recognized it, jumped the route and made the interception. Most of Manning’s mistakes this season have been fairly minor. He isn’t making big mistakes, he isn’t taking big risks, he’s not making a lot of big plays and he’s not winning the Giants any games. Running Back:There’s not much I can tell you about Saquon Barkley that you probably don’t already know. He’s really good. He should be, he was drafted second overall, he better be great and so far he has been. What does a great running back on a bad team get you? A losing record. With that said he could turn into a huge problem if our Colts don’t play their assignments and gang tackle. He is a lot of fun to watch but hopefully he won’t be adding to his highlight reel this Sunday. It would be a mistake not to mention his ability as a pass catcher. He’s caught 82 passes, 15 more than Odell Beckham. There isn’t much to say about it, he’s a complete back. That’s a tiny crease. Barkley hits it in a hurry. This is what you should expect out of him but it isn’t common. I watched Barry Sanders play a handful of times as a kid. I wasn’t able to really appreciate what I was watching and while Barkley isn’t Sanders, he can do some of the same things I didn’t think the NFL world would ever see again. This is why our Colts have to stay in their gaps and multiple people have to flow to Barkley. At Penn State he majored in making the first guy miss and minored in breaking tackles. He is a special back who can take over games, our defense will need to have a plan in place to keep that from happening. Pass Catchers: Odell Beckham, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram all trail Saquon Barkley in catches but they’re the guys you need to know. Beckham is a great receiver with the temperament and maturity of an emotional 10 year old who was handed a million dollar check. If the Colts had the chance to acquire his services I would hope they pass, no matter how good the guy is. I don’t have a high opinion of Beckham the person but he is a lot of fun to watch. Engram is talented and Shepard would be a big upgrade on the Colts roster but as long as Eli Manning is under center we may never know how productive these receivers can be. Yards after catch is a concept foreign to Colts fans, the Giants receivers not only need it if they have any hope of moving the ball, they are good at it too. To Beckham’s credit he’s the only guy on the roster with the guts to throw a pass down field. I know, Barkley’s section was above this one but how could I not include him in the pass catcher’s section?If the Colts can give Beckham the same treatment they’ve given DeAndre Hopkins and Amari Cooper, they’ll just have to worry about stopping Saquon Barkley. Offensive Line: In the off season the Giants signed Nate Solder to a massive contract to play left tackle. At the time I criticized the move and said that they were paying Solder insane money to play worse than Anthony Castonzo. I caught some flack, but I was right. Solder, hasn’t been bad but they paid him like the best tackle in football and he hasn’t been close to that. The Giants also took Will Hernandez in the second round in the 2018 draft. Hernandez has played well at times but he hasn’t changed the entire culture and attitude of the Giants offensive line like some other rookie guard we’ve all heard about. Chad Wheeler the Giants starting right tackle, is probably a good guy. I don’t have anything positive to say about his ability to play football. Spencer Pulley the starting center is in the same boat as Wheeler. Jamon Brown, the starting right guard is in the exact same boat. These guys better hope they keep their looks because they’re not going to get by on their ability to play football much longer. I expect to see a lot of this on Sunday. They just don’t have the talent up front to block the Colts deep defensive line. I also expect to see this. This isn’t on the offensive line but it counts all the same. This line is bad. I expect more production from our young defensive line and with any luck a fun day in the trenches for the good guys. Final Thoughts:The Giants have played better over the second half of the season. They’ve beaten the 49ers, the Buccaneers, the Redskins and the Bears. Of those opponents only the Bears are a quality win and the Giants have yet to beat a team with quarterback as good as Andrew Luck. This isn’t a game anyone should overlook but as a fan I’m not going to worry about the outcome of this one.