Age Reigns Supreme for Indianapolis Colts in Controlling Divisional Win

Football is a young man's game, but don't tell that to the Indianapolis Colts. 

The Colts were mocked throughout the offseason for focusing on signing aging veterans, giving big money to guys like Trent Cole, Andre Johnson and Frank Gore, but on Thursday night, it was the aging veterans who carried the Colts to a 27-20 victory over the Houston Texans. 

With quarterback Andrew Luck sidelined, it was 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck who led the Colts offense to 27 points, including going 3-of-4 in the red zone. The offense wasn't dominant by any means, but it was more than enough against a team that still hasn't figured out which of its quarterbacks is the least-bad option. 

It was a much, much better performance offensively than last week's snooze-fest against the Jaguars, and Hasselbeck stepping up his play was a big part of that. 

Even more remarkable is the fashion in which the former Seattle and Tennessee starter did it. Hasselbeck missed practice all week with a bacterial infection, which he began getting symptoms of at halftime of last week. He still felt the effects of being in the hospital as late as Thursday afternoon, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. 

The Colts just needed Hasselbeck to manage the offense, giving the playmakers the ball in advantageous spots and scoring enough to keep the Texans at bay. 

Mission accomplished. 

Of course, it couldn't have been done without 32-year-old running back Frank Gore. 

Gore has been a stud for Indianapolis all year, but the numbers finally showed it in Houston on Thursday. With Luck out, the Colts went to the ground game as much as possible, and Gore rewarded them with 98 rushing yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. 

While Gore isn't as fast as he used to be, he still finds and gets through small creases as well as any back in the league. Despite a lack of speed, Gore had two carries of 15 yards or more on Thursday, bringing his yearly total to six. Trent Richardson had just five such runs in nearly two years in Indianapolis. 

Gore has been a breath of fresh air at running back for the franchise, which hasn't had a consistently productive back like this since Joseph Addai was still around. 

It helped that the Colts offensive line did such a good job against a Houston front with so many playmakers, of course. J.J. Watt was held to just two assisted tackles, while former first overall pick Jadeveon Clowney had two solo tackles. Without those guys getting penetration, Gore was able to pick his way to production. 

Offensively, we save Andre Johnson for last. The 34-year-old wide receiver has disappeared from the offense over the last few weeks, but he made his presence felt on Thursday, catching six passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns in the city where he terrorized defenses for years. 

Other veterans stepped up as well, however. Mike Adams, the 34-year-old safety, had two critical interceptions, continuing to be in the right place at the right time. Adam Vinatieri, the 42-year-old reliable kicker, continued to put his 0-of-2 start to the season behind him, drilling 48- and 42-yard field goals for a few key points. 

This is what the Colts were hoping for when they signed all those veterans in the offseason. The Colts needed a few stabilizing forces when Luck wasn't playing his absolute best, and they carried the team on Thursday. 

The Colts, hopefully, have survived Andrew Luck's brief stint on the sidelines, which is all they could have hoped for in this situation. 

But will it lead to success as the team goes forward? 

Beating up on the Jaguars and Texans, two of the worst teams in the league if the last two weeks tell us anything, helps the Colts in the division but doesn't give us much of a barometer for how good they can be. 

Hasselbeck, hopefully, won't play again this season. Head coach Chuck Pagano said after the game that Andrew Luck is "really, really close" and that he's "supremely confident" that Luck will play against the New England Patriots next week, per Colts.com. Pagano's been confident in Luck before, however, and Hasselbeck still started the last two weeks. 

Still, signs are good that Luck will play in Week 6. There are still some things, however, that the Colts and Luck can take from Hasselbeck's performance.

This is the game plan the Colts should keep going forward with, a short-passing offense that chips away with a balanced approach and times its deep balls well. There will be some days where the run game doesn't work as well, but Luck can't drop back on seven-step drops throwing to vertical routes every play like he did early in the season. 

Can Frank Gore and Andre Johnson continue to contribute at high levels? We'll get a hint of it next week against the Patriots, but the real question is if their bodies can hold up over the course of the season. Gore looks like he can produce on any given day, outside of a couple of fumbles, but we'll need to see more from Johnson before we're confident in his every-week contributions. 

For now, however, the Colts will bask in this one. Desperately needing a divisional win with Luck sidelined, they managed to pull off two in a row, powered by the 30- and 40-year-olds.

Age really is just a number.