For the first time since September 23, the Texans lost a football game.

A 24-21 defeat to the Colts at NRG Stadium brought Houston down for an afternoon, but the focus is squarely on next Saturday and the New York Jets.

"Now we have to get back to work," defensive end J.J. Watt said. "Get ourselves ready, obviously, for Saturday. Quick turnaround, and in a situation like this it's a good thing sometimes where you get a chance to get back out there on the field a day early and get back to work."

Head coach Bill O'Brien didn't "like what happened today", but stressed the importance of regrouping and recognizing that three games remain in the regular season.

"There's a lot of football left," O'Brien said. "Again, we have a very good locker room. We have guys that are going to show back up to work here and get ready to go. We got a tough game on the road, on the East Coast. It's probably not going to be great weather. But our guys are going to be ready to go."

Cornerback Johnathan Joseph categorized the loss to Indianapolis akin to a "reset button", and is confident in the Texans' mental makeup that they'll be ready for the Jets in six days.

"But I'm definitely sure the type of team we are," Joseph said. "We responded from 0 and 3, so we're definitely going to respond after this loss here with bigger things at stake going forward."

Houston remains atop the AFC South by a two-game margin. Safety Tyrann Mathieu said the Texans have to get back to work in preparation for New York, and that starts early this week.

"We just gotta do a great job of showing up Tuesday ready to roll, especially with this short week," Mathieu said.

The Texans face the Jets on the road for the first time since the 2012 season.