Beaten at home, the 10-5 Houston Texans’ loss to the 2-13 Indianapolis Colts may have been one of the best coaching moves in the history of football by Texans head coach Gary Kubiak.
With the AFC South division already won, the Texans are heading to the playoffs as either third or fourth seed.
Entering week 15, they only had a small chance of gaining first or second seed positions with a win against the Colts, a result which would have relied on high seeds to lose the coming two games.
The Texans have benefited much better from losing.
Tanking has been the flavour of the year, with various ‘suckforLuck’ campaigns aimed at drafting Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the first overall draft selection.
Two weeks ago, the 0-13 Colts were already assigning Luck a parking space at Indianapolis headquarters, until their upset wins against the Tennessee Titans and now the Texans sent plans into disarray.
Four weeks ago, the decision to bench QB Curtis Painter, who had yet to win a game, for QB Dan Orlovsky, put the Colts in a terrible draft position.
In the space of two games, their season is in shambles. If the season ended at the end of this week, the Colts would have the third overall selection assuming St Louis (2-12) lose to Pittsburgh (10-4), and Minnesota (2-12) lose to Washington (5-9). Both these results are near certainties.
Now, with a sniff of drafting Luck, there is no logical reason for Minnesota or St Louis to win. With both teams having their season-starting QB out, they probably won’t.
By losing, the Texans have ruined the Colts plans, in a move which should keep Houston at the top of their division for years to come. Had the Colts drafted Luck, the Texans could have expected all kinds of bashings from their division rival, in a repeat of the Colts drafting of Peyton Manning in 1998.
Since the assignment of the Colts to the AFC South divison in 2003, Manning has led the team to division championships every year except 2008, when they still gained wildcard entry to the playoffs.
While there is a possibility of Manning returning to action next year, he is 35 years old. The one or two years of challenging games will be nothing compared to squaring up against Luck for the next decade.
Tearing Luck from the grasp of the Colts, the Texans are still heading to the playoffs, and there is no possibility Luck will be passed up by both the Minnesota Vikings and St Louis Rams.
By sacrificing one meaningless win, Gary Kubiak coached the ultimate anti-tank game, setting the Texans up for years to come while delivering a huge blow to the Colts.
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