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Texans-Colts Sunday Night Football Preview: Four Things To Watch

Can the Texans break their habit of looking awful in front of a national audience on Sunday night?

NFL: Houston Texans at Minnesota Vikings Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

It's Week Six and it's time to face the Indianapolis Colts for the first time this season. These are the games I always look for when the schedule comes out, so I'm excited for it to be here, though I’m equally nervous about the whole situation. In keeping with previous weeks, I'm going to try and make this is a Brock Osweiler free zone and focus on some other parts of the game.

1. Have Mercy On Us All, Gods of Injuries

The Houston Texans’ injury report was a sad sight on Wednesday.

How many of those players will still be out come Sunday evening isn't clear just yet. With eight players not participating and four limited yesterday, you'd say there's a high chance we're going to be without at least one or two for the game.

The key question is who is going to step in for some of the starters and how the Texans are going to adjust without them. Will we see more three safety packages with so many cornerbacks down? How will we manage with potentially just C.J. Fiedorowicz at TE?

This could be a bridge too far for a team already struggling to get going.

2. Alfred Blue Getting Increased Playing Time?

As I said in HOTD from the Vikings game, Alfred Blue looked like what we were promised with Lamar Miller, whilst Miller looked more like what we expected from Blue.

Blue looked good out there on his limited runs. He ran with confidence and made decisions quickly. More importantly, they were the right ones.

With Lamar Miller struggling, can we afford to keep trying to restart the running game with only him? I think now’s the time to get Alfred Blue out there a bit more. We need a kick-start with the run game. If Blue can provide that jolt, he needs to be out there.

Do you agree? Or is there another solution?

3. The Nightmares of T.Y. Hilton

T.Y. Hilton has had a good year so far. On two occasions, he's exceeded 170 yards in a game whilst scoring a touchdown.

The Texans know all too well about T.Y.'s deep speed. Although last year Matt Hasselbeck didn't quite have the arm to go deep, with Andrew Luck back at the helm for the Colts, Hilton is suddenly a big issue again. Andre Hal has looked good as our new free safety, but how the Texans plan on taking on T.Y. could be greatly affected by the injury report. If we are with Johnathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson on Sunday night, will we see Kevin Johnson follow Hilton around the field? Or do we risk Hilton lining up against Charles James?

Andre Hal and the CBs will be seeing Hilton in their nightmares leading up to this game, I'm sure.

4. Jadeveon Clowney

The player we all dreamed of when he was picked with the 2014 NFL Draft is finally showing up, and it is a sight to behold. It’s a lone bright spot at the moment.

Jadeveon Clowney racked up four tackles for loss against the Vikings and he now leads the NFL with eight in total. Along with his two sacks, six QB hits, and his pass defensed, Clowney is quietly having a very good season. He doesn't seem to garnering much national attention for his efforts, but he’s been a force against the run and has created pressure on passing downs. I haven't seen him drop back in coverage a whole lot, and I'd like it to stay that way.

Look for Clowney to continue that streak against a Colts’ offensive line hat has been giving up pressure left, right and centre all season.

What are you looking forward to most about Sunday Night Football this week?