Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Colts vs. Texans, 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — This is how it happens. Andrew Luck throws for 278 yards and four touchdowns on a chilly Monday night. Dwayne Allen catches three touchdown passes.

Defense and special teams are just as dominant, and the Indianapolis Colts swarm the New York Jets 41-10 in their most complete game of the season.

Meanwhile, on the same weekend, the Houston Texans are in Green Bay and losing their third consecutive game. Once in control of the AFC South, three games over .500 and running away with the division title, the Texans now are a 6-6 football team. Their quarterback, Brock Osweiler, is not good. Their best player, defensive end J.J. Watt, is not healthy.

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Their hold on the AFC South is not strong.

This is how it happens, in a market where Colts coach Chuck Pagano’s constant references about “chopping wood” and “controlling the controllables” elicit eye rolls. In that locker room, see, they are listening. They are believing.

"We have four one-game seasons left," Colts left guard Jack Mewhort was telling me after this game. "Stay focused. Don't get ahead of ourselves. Big one coming this weekend with Houston coming to town."

They are not going away, and this is how it happens. Frank Gore tiptoes in and out of the Jets defense 20 times for 79 yards, passing Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett (12,739) to move into eighth on the NFL’s all-time rushing list with 12,789 yards. Punter Pat McAfee downs a 44-yard punt at the Jets’ 3, and kicker Adam Vinatieri drills a 53-yard field goal. The Colts’ defense get third-down stops from someone old (Trent Cole blasts Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, causing an incompletion) and someone new (linebacker Edwin Jackson shoots a gap and brings down Matt Forte for a 3-yard loss on third-and-1).

And when it is over, the Colts — a 3-5 team at the season’s midpoint — have beaten the Jets for their third victory in four games. The Colts are now 6-6, same as the Texans, but completely different from the Texans. Houston is going backward, a bad and banged-up team getting worse. The Colts are forging ahead, no longer all that banged up, no longer bad.

You saw what happened Monday night at MetLife Stadium. You saw the Colts show up and immediately start thrashing the Jets. The Colts defense didn’t allow a first down on either of the Jets’ first two possessions. The Colts offense scored TDs on each of its first two possessions. Midway through the quarter the crowd at half-empty MetLife Stadium was booing the Jets’ offense and defense off the field.

And you've seen what has happened in the last month, when the Colts took a look in the mirror, saw a 3-5 team playing scared, afraid to lose, and decided to stop being scared. Starting with that 31-26 victory at Green Bay on Nov. 6 when the Colts decided to take not what was given, but what they wanted, they are now in pursuit mode. They pursued the Packers. They pursued the Titans. Won both. Lost last week to the Steelers, but the Steelers are surging as well — and Andrew Luck sat out that game with a concussion.

Now this — this 41-10 victory against the Jets in which the Colts rush for 139 yards, their second-best total of the season, and T.Y. Hilton catches nine passes for 146 yards and Allen matches his season TD total (two) in the first eight minutes, and has three before halftime.

"It's December football — we wanted to start fast and take the crowd out of the game," said Hilton, who caught all six passes thrown his way in the first half for 98 yards. "And we didn't want to take our foot off the gas."

The Colts still have to finish this race — it is not over — but where once they needed a whole lot of help from a whole lot of other NFL teams, now they don’t need anything from anybody. The AFC South has a three-way tie for first, but the Colts are in command. The Colts, Texans and Tennessee Titans are 6-6, but the Colts have swept the Titans. They own that tiebreaker. The Titans have to finish a full game ahead of Indianapolis to win this division, which means the Titans are not the primary threat to the Colts.

The Texans are the primary threat to the Colts — and guess who comes to Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday? Wouldn’t you know it ….

The Texans, losers of three in a row, banged up and bad, visit Indianapolis on Sunday. Win that game, and the Colts would be 7-6. The Texans would be 6-7. The Colts, for the first time all season, would be in first place outright, in control of their own destiny, with just three games to play.

"Everything is right there in front of us," Pagano said.

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We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but this is how it happens. With Darius Butler notching his third interception and David Parry his third sack. With Donte Moncrief juking Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis for one first down and Hilton juking Buster Skrine for another on a drive that culminates by Luck’s 3-yard TD pass to Moncrief for a 31-3 lead. With the offensive line giving Luck plenty of time.

And with Houston, 1,000 miles to the southwest, imploding.

To get here, to get within dreaming distance of the playoffs, the Colts needed to wake up and they needed the Texans to fall asleep. Both have happened. Both are still happening.

The wood is not completely chopped. The controllables have not been completely controlled. But the Colts just beat the Jets to stake a claim to first place in the AFC South, and in six days they have the chance to pound a stake into the Texans’ weakening heart.

This seems to be happening. Can you believe it? This actually seems to be happening.

Colts vs. Texans, 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atfacebook.com/gregg.doyel.