INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts have no problems with close games — as long as they keep winning them.
Peyton Manning delivered another milestone performance, Joseph Addai produced a second straight winning score, and the Colts found another way to win when Houston’s Kris Brown missed a 42-yard field goal as time expired, keeping Indy’s winning streak intact with a 20-17 win.
“I think that’s the mark of a great football team,” center Jeff Saturday said, referring to the close calls. “We’ve won eight games so far, and we’re ahead in our division, which is really our main focus and goal.”
Indy is the fourth team in league history with 17 straight regular-season wins. New England did it twice — winning a record 21 straight from 2006-08 and 18 in a row from 2003-04. Chicago won 17 straight from 1933-34.
Next week, the Patriots come to town with a chance to prevent Indy from matching its original record.
There were plenty of accolades to go around for the Colts on Sunday, too.
Jim Caldwell became the NFL’s first rookie coach to start 8-0 since Potsy Clark in 1930.
Tight end Dallas Clark caught 14 passes, the third-highest single-game total by an NFL tight end. And with eight receptions, Reggie Wayne moved past Hall of Famer Raymond Berry and into second on the Colts’ career reception list.
A week after rallying the Colts with a fourth-quarter TD pass, Addai caught a touchdown pass, then ran 2 yards for the winning score with 7:11 to go.
The Texans (5-4) dropped to 1-14 all time against the Colts, including 0-8 in Indianapolis.
“Huge win, great effort,” Manning said. “It was a great job kind of hanging in there. Obviously, everything wasn’t perfect, but we did a good job of just kind of fighting, and came away with a big win.”
