HOUSTON – The backpack T.Y. Hilton rocked on the way out of the Colts locker room said it all.
The face of a shark was the luggage of choice for Hilton this week and it was fitting considering the bite he had just taken out of the Texans secondary on Thursday Night Football.
A career-night of 223 receiving yards won't help the members of the Houston secondary sleep well this weekend as Hilton torched them just like he has throughout his young NFL tenure.
"I don't know what it is, I just have big games in Houston," Hilton said after he registered his fifth straight game of at least 78 receiving yards against the division foe.
"Something told me the time was now. I've been saying it all week, I felt like I was going to have a big game and I did."
From the start, Hilton carved up the Texans secondary with chunk plays.
A 40-yarder on an early third-and-15 would set up the Colts first points of the evening.
Indianapolis would go on to score 24 first quarter points, the most for the team in an opening frame since 1958.
Hilton would play a pivotal role in the final touchdown of the initial quarter.
His 37-yard reception on a third-and-nine extended a drive that ended with a Coby Fleener touchdown.
"…It just seems like every time against the Texans, for some reason, something just ignites in him and he's able to go off," Dwayne Allen said of his fellow 2012 draftee after pausing to find the right words to describe Hilton's historic night.
"He's a dynamic player for us. We've been expecting that type of play from him all year and it's nice to see him play at that type of level."
By midway through the second quarter on Thursday night, Hilton had topped his regular season career-high (155 yards).
The real question was whether or not the speedster would finally find the end zone for the first time in 2014.
With the momentum riding serious tides towards the home sideline, the Colts nursed a one-possession lead late in the third quarter.
It was a situation the Colts hadn't found themselves in until early in the first quarter.
Guess who would make the play.
With the Colts facing a second-and-seven at the Texans 33-yard line with 3:00 minutes left in the third, Andrew Luck dialed up Hilton.
There was the speedster making a perfect adjustment mid-air to haul in the 33-yard touchdown, which proved to be the pivotal points in the Colts holding off the Texans.
"(Hilton) was fantastic," Luck said after the game.
"You obviously see what he can do on the football field and he got behind the defense. It looked like he was going to get shut out of the end zone another time when they reversed that call but I'm glad he finally got in the end zone this year.
Coming into Thursday night, Hilton hadn't recorded a receiving touchdown in a regular season game since the Colts last trip to Houston (11/3/13).
Even though Hilton left Houston as the Colts leading receiver (40 catches for 607 receiving yards) through six games, he had to wait his turn to join the touchdown brigade.
Luck looked towards Hilton nine times on Thursday evening, and No. 13 made sure to haul in all nine of those opportunities, putting together another highlight reel of plays in his 12th 100-yard receiving game of 37 career games.
"Unbelievable. Unbelievable," Cory Redding said shaking his head of Hilton.
"The kid is just awesome, man. Two-hundred-plus yards, come on, man. I'm just glad that he's on my team."
