Texans: This is an average situation for Houston's offense. That might sound generous. The Colts seem to have come together ...

... defensively in the second half of the season. The Indianapolis defense allowed only 18 touchdowns while going 9-1 in its last 10 games. That's under 2 TDs per week. But part of that success can be attributed to scheduling. Only two of those 10 games were against playoff teams. They played Tennessee and Jacksonville twice, plus the Giants and the Bills before they had any value. The Dolphins and Raiders ...

This report is taken from today's Week 18 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly (for the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs). The newsletter includes our player rankings for the wildcard games, plus 7 pages of matchup previews, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.

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... managed to combined for 7 TDs against this defense. Houston's offense scored 3 TDs in each of the two regular-season meetings, and it's been coming on some, with 16 TDs in its last six games. We're figuring 2-3 TDs, with 3 TDs more likely. ... Deshaun Watson has been a slight disappointment for most of the season. He's averaged 231 passing yards in his last 11 games, with a modest 18 TD passes. Only once all year has he thrown more than 2 touchdowns. They've had problems with pass protection all year. But Watson has been picking it up some recently. He passed for 234 yards on Sunday against a very good Jacksonville defense, and he averaged 318 yards and 2 TDs in his previous two. Here he's taking on what's statistically been a good pass defense, but one that's seen a lot of bad quarterbacks. The three teams that passed for under 200 yards against them, for example, started Josh Allen, Ryan Tannehill and Blaine Gabbert. Watson played well against them in the regular-season games, completing 70 percent of his passes while passing for 642 yards, with 3 TDs and 1 interception. Late in the season, he's also started running a lot more, particularly around the goal line. He's scored 3 TDs on his own in the last two games, with multiple other running attempts at the goal line that have come up just short. Watson has averaged 46 rushing yards in his last six games; he doesn't look like a player who's concerned at all about having undergone reconstructive knee surgery last year. With that added rushing production, he's probably the favorite to finish with the best quarterback numbers of the week in most formats. ... Lamar Miller starts at tailback, but he looks like a modest option. Indianapolis ranked 8th in run defense during the regular season, and he wasn't a big factor in either of the regular-season games. With the way Watson is playing right now, Miller isn't even the player on his own team most likely to run for a touchdown. But the Texans do make an effort to run the ball; they ranked 8th in rushing in the regular season. Miller averaged 79 rushing and 11 receiving yards in his last 10 full games of the regular season, with 5 TDs. That's setting aside the Jets game, where he left very early with an ankle injury. Miller's a starter; we just have very little confidence he'll be much of a factor. Alfred Blue probably will pick up about 30 percent of the workload off the bench. The Texans also have D'Onta Foreman, but he wasn't even active last week after missing most of the season rehabbing an Achilles injury. ... DeAndre Hopkins looks like the prohibitive favorite to put up the best receiving numbers of the week. He's got an unusual ability to come up with contested catches, and he's the guy Watson tends to look for. Hopkins caught 11 of their 26 TDs in the regular season, as well as averaging 98 yards per game. He had his worst game of the season in the earlier Colts game (just 4 catches for 36 yards, albeit with a touchdown), but he played his 2nd-best game in the other meeting (10 for 169 with a touchdown). Hopkins caught at least 8 passes in almost half of his games, and he's probably in line for that kind of workload, given the way they'll be chucking it around. ... Keke Coutee might be the most undervalued receiver of the week. He's missed the last five games with a hamstring injury; no doubt that will scare many off. But Coutee participated fully in practice on Tuesday; that hasn't happened in over a month. He's almost certainly playing, and he could be very busy in the slot. When Houston won at Indianapolis Coutee caught 11 passes for 109 yards. With both Will Fuller and Demaryius Thomas on injured reserve, they'll probably be looking for Coutee to play a big role. We'd have Coutee ranked higher, but we're not certain he'll be their 2nd-best wide receiver. DeAndre Carter has been surprisingly decent recently. He had a 50-yard catch against the Jets, and he's caught 10 passes for 94 yards in the last two games; he'll probably line up outside. ... The Texans use three tight ends, but none of them look likely to post decent numbers. Ryan Griffin caught 5 passes for 80 yards in the previous Colts game, but he's caught only 8 passes for 72 yards in his last five other games. He hasn't caught a touchdown all year. They've used Jordan Thomas some in the red zone; he's caught 4 TDs. But just one in his last seven games, and he's caught only 20 passes all year. Jordan Akins caught 17 passes and no touchdowns in the regular season. ... Ka'imi Fairbairn looks like the best of the kickers. He's been helped along all year by Houston's inability to put the ball in the end zone. He kicked a league-high 37 field goals, helping him score 150 points. He scored a season-low 3 points in the previous Colts game, but he's scored double-digit points in seven of his last 13 other games (including 13 in the Week 4 win at Lucas Oil). ... The Texans Defense seems to have the best interception potential outside of Chicago this weekend. Andrew Luck is playing well, but he's also consistently making some ill-advised throws. He threw 15 interceptions in the regular season, the most of any of the eight quarterbacks playing this week. The Texans, meanwhile, picked off 15 passes in the regular season, tying for the most of any non-Bears team for Wild Card Weekend. Houston also has more ability than most defenses to punch loose fumbles; the Texans recovered 14 fumbles in the regular season, tying for most in the league. That includes a sack-fumble-touchdown in the Week 4 win at Lucas Oil. But sacks are problematic. Luck just doesn't get caught holding the ball like he has in the past. Indianapolis allowed a league-low 18 sacks in the regular season (including just 9 in their last 12 games). Houston had 43 sacks in the regular season (including 4 and 2 in the earlier meetings against the Colts) but unlikely they sack Luck more than twice on Saturday.