First, Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud appeared to snap the ball on a third-and-15 at the Colts' 25-yard line with no time left on the play clock.
"The back judge is the calling official and there is a process on that," referee Clay Martin said in a pool report. "When the clock hits zero, he looks down to the ball and if the ball is snapped as he looks down from the clock to the ball, we leave that alone. That's what he ruled on the play."
Then, officials determined cornerback Kenny Moore II grabbed wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson's arm on the ensuing pass attempt, resulting in a first down.
"The calling official had an arm grab at the top of the route," Martin said. "When you look back, the ball was in the air, and when you see the ball in the air, that makes it pass interference."
Moore, when asked after the game, said: "They said I touched him, so I did."
Finally, after wide receiver Nico Collins ran in a touchdown from the seven-yard line, Texans kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn's PAT sailed over the left upright in the south end zone of Lucas Oil Stadium; officials determined the ball passed completely inside the upright, resulting in a successful PAT try.
"The calling official had the ball above the upright and completely inside the outside edge of the upright and so he ruled a successful try," Martin said. "Since the ball was above the upright it's not reviewable."
None of those officiating decisions were reviewable, Martin said.
Instead of settling for a field goal and a 16-13 lead, the Texans took a 20-13 lead amid a cascade of boos from the crowd in downtown Indianapolis.
"It was tough," head coach Shane Steichen said. "Obviously they made the call. That was the official's call. I'm not going to get into detail on it, but I think a lot of people saw it."
Then, had Fairbairn's PAT try been ruled a miss, it would've been 19-13, which could've later impacted the Colts' decision-making in the fourth quarter.
Houston wound up stopping the Colts on fourth-and-nine late in the fourth quarter to win, 20-16, on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
After the loss – the Colts' second consecutive defeat and third in their last four games – no one in the Colts' locker room was willing to pin Sunday's final score on the referees.
"Listen, it's the NFL," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "Human error is a part of the game. You gotta live with it regardless. When a play like that happens, my job as a leader is to make sure we're all ready to move on to the next play, and that's all I did."
Ultimately, the Colts' focus after losing Sunday's game – which, for the first time this year, knocked them out of first place in the AFC South – was not on a handful of decisions the officiating crew made. It was on the plays they, collectively, didn't make.
Houston's offense ran at least seven plays on five of its last six drives; the only one they didn't was a game-ending five-play drive. After the pass interference flag on Moore, Texans running back Woody Marks rushed for eight yards on first down, then a yard on second down; tight end Cade Stover picked up a first down on a tush push before Collins ran in a touchdown on a reverse.
The Colts' offense, meanwhile, punted on three first quarter possessions, then turned the ball over on downs on a botched fourth-and-one conversion attempt in the Texans' red zone on their fourth possession.
After Alec Pierce got in the end zone on the Colts' fifth drive, kicker Michael Badgley missed the ensuing PAT; had that gone in, the Colts could've had a game-tying field goal attempt in the fourth quarter instead of being forced to go for it on fourth-and-nine while down by four. And on that last drive, wide receiver Josh Downs couldn't haul in a third-and-nine pass from quarterback Daniel Jones, which at the last could've cut the distance on fourth down to something more manageable.
In all three phases, there were plays the Colts felt they left out there – and those will stick with this team much longer than anything the officiating crew may or may not have called on Sunday.
"When you lose tight games, it's frustrating because you're like, shoot, we could've had that, we could've had this, we could've had that," Steichen said. "It's three or four plays when you lose the tight ones. So we gotta find a way to get those three or four plays when it is a tight game like that."
