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After bye week, Colts look to get back on track

Sep 30, 2008 - 6:57 PM Indianapolis (1-2) at Houston (0-3), 1:00 pm EDT

HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Used to fast starts, the Indianapolis Colts enter October in unfamiliar territory.

On Sunday, the Colts hope to get a boost from their struggling offense and climb back to .500 when they visit the winless Houston Texans in an AFC South contest.

Sunday's contest is the first at Reliant Stadium since the Texans were forced to postpone a scheduled Week Two contest against Baltimore due to Hurricane Ike.

The five-time defending AFC South champions are under .500 after three games for the first time since 1998, Peyton Manning's rookie season. They already have dropped 2 1/2 games behind undefeated Tennessee (4-0) in the division.

"We certainly don't want to go 1-3 and we don't want to have two division losses back-to-back and get behind the eight ball that way," Colts coach Tony Dungy said.

In the previous three seasons, the Colts got off to 13-0, 9-0 and 7-0 starts, respectively. However, a window of opportunity may be closing on a team that is showing signs of age.

In their previous game before last week's bye, the Colts suffered a 23-21 loss to Jacksonville on Josh Scobee's 51-yard field goal with four seconds remaining. Indianapolis could not get its defense off the field, as the Jaguars possessed the ball for nearly 42 minutes, including 12 in the fourth quarter.

"We just have to start playing better," Dungy said. "You can't control how anybody else is. Tennessee is playing great right now - but our concern is more getting ourselves playing great, then we'll be in good shape."

To do that, the Colts need to get more out of an offense that is 27th in the NFL in scoring at just 17.5 points per game. Manning has been spotty, throwing only three touchdowns and four interceptions while facing more pressure than he has in past seasons.

Even worse, the Colts are saddled with the league's worst rushing offense (64.0 ypg). Joseph Addai has been held to 142 yards after back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

Houston (0-3) is coming off last week's 30-27 overtime loss at Jacksonville. Matt Schaub, who passed for 307 yards and three touchdowns, drove the Texans to a tying field goal in the final seconds of regulation, but they never saw the ball in overtime.

Due to the postponement, Houston started the season with three straight road games. Sunday is the Texans' home opener and the first of four straight home games.

"It's nice to know that we'll be down here for the next month," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. "It's been three very tough road games in a row. That's just something that we have to battle through, but we do look forward to getting back here and playing."