Doyel: No style, no problem. Colts just win

• Colts at Texans, 8:25 p.m. Thursday, CBS, NFL

Noise was booming and confetti was swirling and streamers were falling from the sky in waves of red and blue. This looked like a win. Sounded like one, too. The scoreboard showed the Indianapolis Colts with 16 points, and the Jacksonville Jaguars with 13. Math can be hard, but not that hard.

The Colts won.

We could end the story right there, because that’s the most important takeaway from Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium – the Colts won – but let’s keep going to examine just how silly this notion is: That the occasionally hapless, definitely Andrew Luck-less Colts should be blistered for the way they played against the Jaguars.

And that notion is out there. Check your favorite form of social media – perhaps your own account. It’s a snark-nado of negativity around the Colts, who were outgained by more than 100 yards and lost more turnovers and surrendered more sacks and were able to win this game on Adam Vinatieri’s 27-yard field goal in overtime only because Jaguars kicker Jason Myers, bless his little heart, missed a 53-yarder at the end of regulation and a 48-yarder earlier in overtime.

It’s like people expect the Colts to apologize for winning.

“I’ll never apologize for winning,” says Colts coach Chuck Pagano.

Insider: Colts need every break they get in win

There are several layers of truth about this game, one being, yes, the Colts played poorly against a poor team. Another truth: The Colts were lucky they didn’t lose.

Another truth: The Colts won with their backup quarterback.

In today’s NFL, where there are maybe 25 quality quarterbacks, total, for 32 franchises, it’s a major victory to win a game with the backup.

Matt Hasselbeck is no ordinary backup, given that he has thrown for more than 35,000 yards and 200 touchdowns and won more than 80 games in his 17-year NFL career. But he is a backup. If he were good enough to start somewhere, he’d be starting in Cleveland or Houston or Philadelphia or Washington or some other team that could use a legitimate NFL quarterback.

But one thing we learned Sunday is that Hasselbeck is a workable Plan B for the Colts. Some people thought otherwise during the preseason. After the Colts lost 23-11 to the Bears in August, the following sentence was written by, um, me:

Matt Hasselbeck is not a workable Plan B.

Oops?

As Hasselbeck was being led from one postgame interview to another, I stopped him to congratulate him on shoving that Aug. 22 column of mine right up … well, for proving on Sunday that he’s better at his job than I am at mine. Class guy that he is, he smiled, said thanks, and actually meant it.

But he’s a backup for a reason, and the Colts won anyway, and in a world where there is so much gray, let’s see this for the black-or-white, zero-sum issue it is: When you’re playing the backup at quarterback, the goal is winning.

Not winning big. Not winning with style points.

Just win.

In the locker room, the Colts were thrilled. You may recall that last week, after they beat the Titans – winning an AFC South game on the road – the Colts’ locker room didn’t look or feel like the locker room of a winner. It was quiet in there, almost funereal. Last time, the Colts were drained.

This time? They were thrilled.

Robert Mathis was giggling loudly with the media, and he’s not a giggler. Music was playing. Happy shouts were coming from someone in the shower. Matt Overton, who snapped the ball that Pat McAfee held and Vinatieri kicked to win the game, was smiling at his locker and describing the locker room immediately after the game, before the doors were opened to the media.

“Pure joy,” Overton was saying. “We understood the ramifications of this game. We’re now 2-0 in the division, and that’s huge. It doesn’t matter how many times you win – every win is special.”

Several warning lights were glowing red during this game, but nothing we didn’t know already. The offensive line, which allowed three sacks and struggled to open holes for running backs Frank Gore and Josh Robinson – 20 carries for 55 yards total, and almost half of those yards came on Gore’s final carry – isn’t very good. Didn’t we know that?

Three decades-plus of NFL experience lift Colts to win

The depth at cornerback is not very good. We knew that. Andre Johnson’s old. Knew it. Gore and Robinson fumble too much. Knew it.

Only thing of substance we learned on Sunday:

The Colts can win without Andrew Luck.

Could they win against a great team? Probably not. OK, definitely not. But they’re in the AFC South – the Colts don’t have to apologize for their division, either – and to win the AFC South they have to beat Tennessee and Jacksonville, as they already have in the past eight days, and they have to beat Houston, as they will get the chance on Thursday.

The Texans just got smoked 48-21 by the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Pretty sure the Colts can win Thursday, whoever’s at quarterback.

And it could be Luck, whose shoulder got better as the week went along, according to Pagano. If not Luck it will be Matt Hasselbeck, who was 30-of-47 for 282 yards and a touchdown on Sunday and was charming the media afterward by saying he was “all geeked up” before the game when the door to the hallway opened and Chuck Pagano was peeking his head into the room and saying something:

“Hey,” Pagano told Hasselbeck. “Great win. Love ya. So proud you’re a Colt.”

Pagano closed the door and was gone. No apologies given. None required.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel 

Colts at Texans, 8:25 p.m. Thursday, CBS, NFL