And after Indianapolis beat AFC South champion Houston 28-16, Pagano even tossed aside the stodgy image of an NFL coach and began jumping around with players, assistant coaches and even team owner Jim Irsay like he was a kid again.

Why not?

"There was a lot of high-fiving, a lot of dancing, a lot of hugging going on and a lot of celebrating," an emotional Pagano said. "There's a lot to celebrate right now."

It started with Pagano's return.

He took an indefinite leave Sept. 26 to begin the first of three rounds of chemotherapy for leukemia, and didn't make it back to the sideline until Sunday when the cancer was in complete remission.

But the party began much earlier.

When Pagano first walked onto the field, he waved to the fans and hugged his wife, Tina.

When fans gave him a standing ovation after a 1-minute video played on the stadium's two Jumbotrons just before kickoff, a choked-up Pagano held his tears in check.

When he left the field, he hugged everybody in sight -- assistant coaches, Colts players, even Texans players and coaches -- before moving the postgame party to the locker room, where Irsay presented him with a game ball and they did a do-si-do together.

"What a day, what a day," he said. "We could go into what transpired out there over the last three hours and five, 10 minutes whatever, from a stats standpoint and big plays, penalties and run offense and run 'D', all of that stuff. But just down the road, I have watched all of this take place for the last 12 ball games."

Players had a different kind of welcome-back celebration planned.

"Guys really did not want to lose in his first game back and heading into the playoffs," rookie quarterback Andrew Luck said. "To get a win, I think means the world to him."

Luck, as usual, had a big hand in the victory. He was 14 of 28 for 191 yards with two more touchdowns and no interceptions.

He wasn't alone, though.

Karim swung the game with the kickoff return just seconds after the Texans took their only lead, and when Luck converted on third-and-23 with the 70-yard TD pass early in the fourth quarter, the crowd was in a frenzy.

The Colts (11-5) will play at Baltimore in the wild-card round next weekend. The slumping Texans (12-4) have lost three of their last four and fell to the No. 3 seed in the AFC thanks to wins Sunday by the Broncos and Patriots. Houston will host Cincinnati next weekend.

"We had a great opportunity the last two weeks, but we won't feel sorry for ourselves," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said after giving Pagano a hug and whispering in his ear after the game. "We'll focus on keeping our confidence up, even if we have to play next week."

Indy did everything it needed to Sunday.

The Colts prevented J.J. Watt from getting too close to Luck -- or any closer to Michael Strahan's NFL sacks record (22 1/2). Watt finished with 20 1/2.

"We didn't win, so I could care less about the record. It's about winning," Watt said.