INDIANAPOLIS -- Matt Hasselbeck's body has been through it all during the seven games he’s started at quarterback in place of the injured Andrew Luck for the Indianapolis Colts.

Neck. Jaw. Ribs. Back. Even food poisoning. But the 40-year-old quarterback has managed to pull himself off the ground over and over again.

You can’t fault Hasselbeck for wanting to keep returning to the game, but now might be the time for the Colts to shut him down.

“Today I got nothing left,” Hasselbeck said after the Colts’ 16-10 loss to the Texans.

Matt Hasselbeck stays down after taking a hard hit in the second half against the Texans. AP Photo/AJ Mast

Hasselbeck meant that, too. You heard it in his voice, by how slowly he spoke. Part of it was because he took a hit to his jaw, and the other part is he’s just beat up.

Hasselbeck wasn't supposed to be in this position in the first place. Not with Luck, who hadn't missed a snap due to injury during his first three seasons in the NFL. But Hasselbeck stepped in and won his first four starts before losing his past three.

"I'm just going to give them what I got,” Hasselbeck said. “We'll see how it goes. It's December and everyone's a little bit banged up."

Hasselbeck is normally an upbeat person, but he took Sunday’s loss personally. The Colts had the opportunity to control their own fate in the AFC South with a victory over the Texans. But the offense couldn’t move the ball down the field. And now they need help from other teams to make the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Indianapolis only had 190 yards of total offense, its fewest since Week 14 of the 2011 season. Hasselbeck was 17-for-30 for 147 yards, with one touchdown and a sack.

“I thought we had it, really thought we had it,” Hasselbeck said. “Probably could have been a little bit more aggressive. Just kind of was in this mode of we win the turnover battle, we win the game. We win turnover ratio, we win the game. We kind of thought to win this game no one had to do anything superhero(-like), we just had to do everything right, just play a clean game. You don't have to put a cape on or anything like that. Just play like you practice. Don't shoot yourselves in the foot, and we sort of did. We didn't do what we set out to do."

Hasselbeck -- for the third straight week -- was forced out of the game in the fourth quarter when Texans linebacker Whitney Mercilus beat the double-team of Jonotthan Harrison and Hugh Thornton and hit Hasselbeck just after he completed a pass to wide receiver Donte Moncrief.

Hasselbeck returned for the following the series, and then with the chance to drive down the field for the winning touchdown he was intercepted on a pass completely off the mark to Moncrief.

“My fault,” Hasselbeck said. “It was a really great play call, and I just misinterpreted the angle that he was going to take. It's my fault all the way. I feel really bad about it because it was a good play call. It was good coverage for us. I just kind of feel like I let everybody down with not having a more accurate throw I guess."