Colts look to strengthen run game against Houston Sunday

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis Colts aren't ready to abandon the running game just yet.\nDespite struggling to run the ball in their victory over the New York Giants, the Colts remain optimistic about improving their ground attack heading into Sunday's AFC South match-up against the Houston Texans at the RCA Dome.\nIndianapolis, which was playing its first regular season game since losing running back Edgerrin James to Arizona during the offseason, managed only 55 yards rushing on 23 carries against the Giants.\n"Whenever you have a significant change like we did, it's going to take some time to get used to," Colts center Jeff Saturday said about James' absence. "We have to get better, and that's something we can improve on."\nOne player who expects to improve this Sunday is starting running back Dominic Rhodes, who averaged 1.8 yards per carry in the 26-21 win over New York. Rookie Joseph Addai, the 30th overall selection in April's NFL draft, rushed for 26 yards on seven attempts.\n"The running will come," said Rhodes, who averaged 3.0 yards per carry last season. "Right now, it doesn't matter as long as we win."\nWith the running game struggling last weekend, the Colts were forced into more passing situations. Quarterback Peyton Manning completed 25-of-41 pass attempts for 276 yards and one touchdown.\n"We have to show people we can run the football and that we're committed to running the football," Manning said. "All we want is to keep working on it and show it on the field."\nSaturday said the Colts never gave up on their game plan to run the ball against New York, even though they had little success.\n"I think Peyton did a great job. ... He kept calling it up, making us get up in there," Saturday said. "Even if we're not getting the yards we want, at least they have to honor it. At least they know you're not going to quit on it."\nAlthough Indianapolis held on to beat the Giants, Manning knows the Colts need to get the ground game working in order to keep teams honest.\n"If teams are doubling Marvin (Harrison) and doubling Reggie (Wayne) on the outside and safeties are staying deep, there are a lot of defenders that aren't worried about the run," Manning said. "If you can run it, you can have some huge plays. We need to be able to do that to be three-dimensional in our offense."\nColts coach Tony Dungy didn't want to read too much into the poor rushing effort by his team against New York.\n"Everybody looks at the stats and they'll say that we can't run the ball, but we went to a tough place to play, against a good defense," Dungy said. "There are going to be some weeks where we get a lot of good run looks and some weeks where we don't."\nSaturday expects the Colts to display a more effective running game against Houston, which allowed 130 yards rushing during a 24-10 loss to Philadelphia in Week 1.\n"They are one of those teams that doesn't want to give up big plays, so I think we'll have more run looks against those guys," he said.\nDungy wouldn't elaborate about how much the Colts would try to run during Sunday's game.\n"For us, it really depends on how they play us," Dungy said. "We never go into the game saying we've got to run 'X' amount of times or we've got to do this. What's important to us is when we run. It has to be effective -- whether that's five times or 50 times"