Case Keenum Will Surprise Indianapolis Colts with Impressive Performance

The Houston Texans will be playing the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football, and while he may not lead his team to victory, Case Keenum should be able to surprise a lot of people with an impressive performance.

It has not been a pretty season so far for the Texans, who have lost five straight games.  Things have gotten so bad that Matt Schaub has been benched, with Keenum starting under center.

The team confirmed on Monday after his first career game that Keenum would start against the Colts.

While it's going to be difficult for the Texans to win this one, the second-year quarterback out of Houston should have another nice game.

In his NFL debut against the Kansas City Chiefs, Keenum played pretty well.  He went 15-of-25 through the air, throwing for 271 yards and a touchdown with zero interceptions, although he did have two fumbles.

Tania Ganguli of ESPN reported that the play-action passing game for the Texans actually improved with Keenum under center.  As you can see below, it's really not close despite the fact that Keenum was playing against the league's best defense.

	Yards Per Attempt	Passer Rating	QBR
Matt Schaub	5.5	95.3	27.6
Case Keenum	10.3	109.7	98.8

That play action should be just as effective on Sunday night.  Even though Arian Foster has been questionable to play, Ian Rapoport from NFL.com is reporting that he will be playing.

What's even more impressive is that Keenum has responded very well to the blitz.

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Keenum went 7-of-11 with 124 yards and a touchdown with a 132.4 passer rating when he was blitzed.  When Schaub has been blitzed, he's thrown four touchdowns and five interceptions for a 64.2 passer rating.

As a team, the Colts have been solid against the pass.  They've held opponents to just 228 passing yards per game, allowing just eight touchdowns and forcing eight interceptions.  

However, according to the team's official injury report, the Colts will be without Greg Toler, Josh Gordy and Delano Howell in their secondary.  While they still have Vontae Davis and Darius Butler, the Colts may struggle to contain the likes of Andre Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins and Owen Daniels without those three defensive backs.

Keenum will also have an advantage due to the fact that he simply hasn't played enough for the Colts to be prepared for him.  Much like rookie pitchers in baseball, the Colts don't have a ton of film to study based off of Keenum's limited playing time in the NFL.

Mike Wells from ESPN gave this quote from defensive coordinator Greg Manusky about preparing for Keenum:

"

Thank God we at least have one game on him with Kansas City. We went back into the preseason, watched some of the reps that he took there, compiled those and from the players' and from the coaches' standpoint, we watched all those. It’s just trying to get a repertoire of what the guy likes and what throws he has.

"

The Colts are banged up in their secondary, and Keenum hasn't been bad when he's played.

Don't expect the Texans to win, but expect Keenum to show that he should be the team's starting quarterback for the rest of the 2013 season.