2020 Dynasty/Fantasy Week 13 Game Analysis: Colts 26, Texans 20
I take notes during the live watch. I re-watch the game on tape looking for hidden clues to report on. Here are my notes/takes on what I saw and how it related to FF 2020. I write anywhere from 1,000-3,000+ words on each game, and I must move fast to get to all of them through the week…so, please forgive any typos/grammar.
It felt like the Colts were the better team here and they led the game for 50+ minutes of game play. Yet, the Texans just hung around down by a score all 2nd-half (with neither team scoring a TD or FG all 2nd-half of the game)…and on a final drive of the game, Houston got down to the 2-yard line – and on 2nd & 2 with 1:28 remaining…a bad shotgun snap resulting in a lost fumble and…ball game. The Texans find a new way to lose.
The stats in the game were pretty even. The game play leaned Indy (to my eye), but the Colts only scored 5 points the final 39 minutes of the game. Houston played well enough to win, they just blew it in the end on a fluke bad snap at the wrong time.
Houston losing is no big deal, their season was already over. But Indy would have been in big trouble for the playoffs and AFC South title with a bad division loss here. With the win, the Colts jump up to (8-4) and stay steady for the playoffs. Indy leans more towards 10 wins than 9 wins now, but it’s one of those two likely end results. Week 14 Indy at LV is huge for the winner of that game for the playoffs.
Houston is (4-8) and going nowhere fast. They could end up with 6 wins in the end.
Fantasy Player Notes…
-- The Houston WR report…
Brandin Cooks (5-65-0/8) left the game with concussion concerns, but I did not realize until the re-watch that he re-entered the game very late. He must have gotten cleared, obviously. I thought the concussion would be an issue into Week 14…because he has a bad history with them. Looks like not as big an issue as I thought. We’ll see.
Whether Cooks was in or out, Keke Coutee (8-141-0/9) put on a show. Every catch he made was better than the next. He looked like CLEARLY the best WR on the Texans roster…whether Fuller or Stills or Cooks or Andre Johnson was there. Quite a performance by Coutee, who has flashed at times before but could never stay healthy/on the field to follow through on it.
I like Coutee ahead for FF, from what I saw here and knowing he had some big PPR weeks in the past with Watson. Cold weather game at CHI this week is a so-so situation but then two dome games Weeks 16-17 (IND-CIN) could be really nice.
Chad Hansen (5-101-0/7) came up off the practice squad and looked like he belongs in the NFL with a very solid performance – he looked like he’d been starting for Houston for years; didn’t miss a beat. Hansen is a solid Chris Hogan-type WR but will be lower targeted with Cooks-Coutee playing. I wouldn’t get too excited here unless Cooks is out, and then no hope when Cobb returns.
Randall Cobb is set to return from IR Week 15…we’ll see if that’s the case. If he gets back, it puts a mild damper on Coutee’s upside and throws Hansen out of the starting lineup. I liked Cobb as a waiver wire sleeper grab for Week 16 v. CIN if Cooks might be out for a few weeks…but that’s not looking like the case, so my Cobb thoughts are tempered a bit (if Cooks is fine).
-- In a time of great need for receivers, the Texans were rumored to be looking for Jordan Akins (2-10-0/3) to help fill in. He did play a good amount of the snaps (70%), but…
Three whole targets. Wow! How great.
Akins will have a decent FF-week this season, gets me sucked in and then disappears for 2-3-4 games. I’m pretty much out on this now. Sick of the empty roller coaster ride.
Kahale Warring (0-0-0/1) saw all of 6 snaps but did get in for an end zone shot from about 10 yards out, but Watson threw a bit high and the DB knocked it down thwarting a Warring TD. No real effort to see more of Warring otherwise by Romeo Crennel…shocker.
-- David Johnson (10-44-1, 0-0-0/2) looked fine in his return off IR. Just lower touches and no real targets again. I can’t write anymore about how dumb him not being a part of the passing game is. I just know that it’s never going to change on purpose.
-- Jonathan Taylor (13-91-0, 3-44-1/3) had a really good game here, but just know…it was not intentional. There was absolutely no sign of Frank Reich looking to lean on Taylor the 1st-half of this game. In the 2nd-half, Taylor got going and he looked nice for a 2nd game in a row…but just know the Colts are not committed to him. He’s just part of the trio and it could be a big touch or little touch week in the snap of a finger.
-- So, NOW…T.Y. Hilton (8-110-1/11) finally starts to play good fantasy football? I had a ton of TYH and/or Marvin Jones to start the FF season and they both stunk so bad I had to cut them everywhere a few weeks in…and then they start becoming stars every week the past few weeks…once not on my teams.
Thanks for nothing…literally.
TYH is looking like ‘the man’, but keep in mind – he had his first real monster game against the worst CB in the history of football, Vernon Hargreaves. Everyone is a star vs. Hargreaves. Only the Texans are stupid enough to keep trotting him out there. With Bradley Roby gone, Hargreaves is seen as their top corner…and, well, even T.Y. Hilton-2020 can take advantage of that.
LV-HOU the next two weeks…TYH might be a late season starter/producer.
-- I have been against Trey Burton (1-11-0/3) all season, but thought I saw some hope as a low level TE1 this past week…and he responded with a 1 catch game for 11 yards. Man, I hate all the Indy TEs…the situation they are in. You can’t FF-trust any of them in a given week.
-- Had Deshaun Watson not fumbled near the goal line at the end of the game, it would’ve been another game where the Colts give up 27 or more points to the opponent. They gave up 45 last week to TEN. 31 to GB the week before. When they play good offenses, offense happens. LV-HOU-PIT are all good offenses to face the next 3 weeks.
Snap Counts of Interest:
59 = Hansen
53 = Cooks
48 = Coutee
45 = Akins
27 = Fells
06 = Warring
33 = J Taylor
23 = Hines
13 = Wilkins
44 = Alie-Cox
38 = Doyle
25 = Burton
