This is the game of the year for both teams on Thursday Night Football. The Indianapolis Colts defense has been playing very well recently, but they haven’t faced a tough run of quarterbacks like they did at the beginning portions of the season. They will get a massive challenge on Thursday night.

This is the second matchup between the Colts and Houston Texans. They met back in Week 7 in Indianapolis, a game the Colts won 30-23. The defense as a whole didn’t put up amazing numbers, but they held a great red-zone offense in the Texans to 2/5 there and forced two fourth-quarter interceptions.

Let’s take a look at some keys for the Colts defense as they travel to Houston looking for a massive win:

1. Red-zone defense

In the previous matchup, the Colts defense held one of the better red-zone offenses in the NFL to just 2-5 in the red-zone. That was one of the deciding factors in the early-October game back in Week 7. The Colts will have to duplicate that effort in this game.

Interesting stat from the Colts: they didn’t allow a single red-zone snap in the Week 11 game versus the Jaguars. They did, however, give up a long touchdown to receiver DJ Chark that puts a skew in that stat.

Special New Jersey BetMGM Prop Bet! Bet $1, WIN $100 in free bets if Houston QB Deshaun Watson rushes for at least one yard against Indianapolis on Thursday Night Football. Place your bet now!

Valid for new customers. Visit BetMGM for terms and conditions.

But, if you look over the last three games this Colts defense has only given up touchdowns on 33% of red-zone trips by the opponent. To add context, the Colts have turned the ball over seven times in the previous three games, four of those turnovers were on the opponent’s side of the field, so the defense was put in a bad spot.