INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts coach Frank Reich did not back off his decision to go for it on fourth down in their own territory in the overtime loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday.
What Reich did back down from, however, is saying that he would go for it 10 out of 10 times if put in that position again.
"I probably should give context to the 10 out of 10," Reich said Monday. "It's probably not a complete absolute as it is a mindset of being aggressive. There's always a lot of things to consider. To say it's an absolute, it was an emotional, tough loss (Sunday). The mindset is we're going to be aggressive. That's probably a better perspective for me to put it into context."
The Colts had the ball at fourth-and-4 from their own 43-yard line when quarterback Andrew Luck's pass to receiver Chester Rogers landed at his feet, giving Houston a short field to work with to win the game. T.Y. Hilton, the Colts No. 1 receiver, left the game in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury.
"(Luck) always has options to change (the play), but there was nothing I would change about that call, especially seeing what (defense Houston) played," Reich said. "They were dropping eight and kind of stacking everybody to the middle. You're going to be somewhat one-on-one on the outside. We're going to have a high-percentage throw one-on-one on the outside we feel good about."
Reich recently talked about how he relies on two people on staff in the booth during games who have "direct communication" with him during the game to help him with in-game management. The coach said he didn't use them Sunday.
The Colts felt confident that they could convert the fourth-down play because of the success they were having moving the ball to go along with Houston's defense tiring from the no-huddle offense. Luck was 28-of-38 for 322 yards and three touchdowns in the second half when the Colts trailed by as many as 18 points.
The only second-guessing Reich did after the game was that the Colts should have tried to get the first down before calling the timeout. The Colts attempted to draw the Texans offsides before calling the timeout right before the play clock reached zero.
"Obviously I thought about it in the last 24 hours and still feel really good about the decision," Reich said. "I understand the other side of that decision and I'm not saying that's not fair. In my mind, right now we're the best team in the NFL on third down. We're really good at converting those. That's No. 1. Our quarterback was on fire. That's No. 2. Our offense was on fire. I didn't feel like they could stop us. So that was a big factor. ... It was a bit risky and a bit aggressive, but I think it was the right call. I feel good about it. Just didn't feel good about the execution."