HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Dameon Pierce was the Texans starting running back for his NFL debut and was involved heavily in the offense early, but he took a backseat to Rex Burkhead as the game progressed and he took no issue with that.
"I feel like this was a learning standpoint for me," Pierce said. "Gettin' to see how the vet do it, gettin' to see how the vet handle it, so when I am in there I know how to handle it."
Pierce carried the ball 11 times for 33 yards while catching one pass for six yards against the Colts on Sunday, but nine of his 12 touches came in the game's first three quarters, and he was not on the field for any of the Texans eight offensive plays in overtime.
"Passing plays, passing situations, Rex was our lead back in that situation, so that's kind of what happened," Texans head coach Lovie Smith said. "In an ideal world, of course, when you have a lead, you would like for that not to be the case, but once they came back at the end, that's when the numbers started changing a little bit.”
The fourth round pick out of Florida turned heads by running for 86 yards on 11 carries in preseason play, but he acknowledged he needs to be better in pass protection, and he thought it helped him to be on the sidelines during passing downs with the game on the line.
"I want to be comfortable when I go in," Pierce said. "I don't want to go in there thinking, so seeing Rex, I get to see on film how he approaches things, how he expects pressures and how he picks them up."
Playing in his 99th NFL regular season game, Burkhead, 32, ran for 40 yards on 14 carries, while catching five-of-eight targets for 30 yards.