The clock was stopped with 1:15 to go until halftime, and the Indianapolis Colts sent out kicker Rodrigo Blankenship for a field goal to extend their lead 24-17.
Houston Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel burned the team’s second timeout just before Blankenship attempted his 42-yard kick. As a result, the Texans had only one timeout remaining as they endeavored to put points on the board at the end of the half.
“I made a decision to try to ice the kicker, probably wasn’t the best decision to make, but I called the timeout on that one,” Crennel said after the 26-20 loss Sunday. “Probably if we had had that timeout, we might have been able to use it maybe to get a touchdown at the end of the half.”
That is precisely the scenario the Texans found themselves in as they were third-and-10 from the Colts’ 16-yard line with eight seconds until halftime. Houston used their last timeout during the drive to put the offense in scoring position.
With conceivably enough time for another play and then a field goal, Crennel sent out kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn for a 34-yard attempt, chipping into Indianapolis’ lead 24-20 at the break.
“I’m going to start at the last one, kicking the field goal on third down,” said Crennel. “The clock, we didn’t have a whole lot of time, so if you don’t kick it there and something goes wrong on the play, then you don’t have an opportunity to get the points on the board, so we kicked it to get the points on the board.”
The Texans running out of time on their last drive of the half stems from Crennel trying to ice Blakenship.
“Sometimes. I mean, hey, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work,” Crennel said. “If he had missed the field goal, then boom, I would have been a genius, but he made it, so I’m a dufus.”
Crennel has taken some gambles for Houston this season that have paid off, but icing Blakenship was a gamble that got the Texans tossed from the riverboat.
