Even Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud had to admit his play was lackluster in the beginning of Saturday’s wild-card playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers at NRG Stadium.
For the first several possessions, the Texans’ franchise quarterback seemed overwhelmed as he threw high, low and to the other team while talking sacks against the Chargers’ aggressive defensive front.
But what appeared to be another of Stroud’s errors – a fumbled snap and scooped it up while scrambling right and he found receiver Xavier Hutchinson for a 27-yard pass play with 3:26 left to play in the second quarter – turned out to be the play of the game. That play was the spark in a 13-play, 99-yard drive that lasted 5:17 and ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Nico Collins with just over a minute to play in the first half.
It was the defining moment of a game where the Texans didn’t always play their best. Still, it worked out in a stunning 32-12 win that propelled Stroud and the Texans to the divisional playoff round, where they will meet the AFC top-seed Kansas City Chiefs on the road next week.
While the defense put forth a dominant performance against the Chargers’ high-powered offense, Stroud’s fumble recovery, pass completion, and 27-yard scramble energized the often-criticized quarterback and the entire Texans team as they rallied past the Chargers. Off the strength of those two plays, the Texans swung a six-point deficit into a 10-6 advantage in the final 1:02 minutes of the first half and never looked back.
“When I looked to the sideline after that play, Joe (Mixon) was turned and DeMeco (Ryans) was going crazy … when you get leaders and everybody rooting you on, it’s nothing like it,” Stroud said to the Defender. “Our crowd was on 10. After that play, I heard them go crazy and that gave me juice and inspired me to keep going.”
That certainly eased some of the frustration and disappointment the Texans and Stroud felt late in the season after losing three of their final six regular-season games. Stroud, who lost two of his top three receivers to season-ending injuries and was playing behind a struggling offensive line, had been shouldering much of the criticism.
The Texans, winners of the AFC South and participants in the AFC playoffs in Year 2 of Stroud and Ryans, actually entered Saturday’s home playoff game as the underdogs after going 4-5 in their last nine games after a 6-2 start.
But all of the struggles and frustration for Stroud seemed to go away late in the first half Saturday as the team, on both sides of the football, rallied around him. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but Stroud made critical plays with his arm and legs.
“It sparked excitement in everyone, it sparked confidence,” Ryans said to the Defender about the importance of Stroud’s big plays at the end of the first half. “It’s what we needed just because of what happened previously on key drives. It wasn’t going right.
“When he made that play it was like everyone was like, `We’re ready to go now.’ It’s not about how you start but how you finish and we finished the right way offensively.”
Defensive end Denico Autry (96) and the Texans defensive front harassed Chargers quarterback Just Herbert all day. Credit: AP
Still, much of the credit for the win has to go to the defense, which harassed Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert all day and gave the rushing attack nowhere to turn. Herbert, who had thrown just three interceptions all regular season, was picked off four times by the Texans secondary and sacked another four times by the defensive front.
Cornerback Derek Stingley picked Herbert off twice, Kamari Lassiter had another and Eric Murry came up with a 38-yard pick-six off Herbert that put the Texans ahead 20-6 late in the third quarter.
“That’s the complementary football that we been looking for and we been needing as a team,” Ryans said. “Just outstanding performance on all three phases. Really proud of all our guys. I can go through each position group, everybody stepped up and made a play when we needed to make plays. Our best players stepped up and made big plays for us to win this game.”
The Chargers scored six points on two field goals in their first possession of the game, but didn’t score another point until early in the fourth quarter when Herbert found Ladd McConkey for an 86-yard touchdown bomb. But even that didn’t work out the way the Chargers needed after the extra point was blocked and D’Angelo Ross scooped it up and returned it for a two-point conversation to allow the Texans to hold a 25-12 advantage.
“The unique thing about our team, our defense, is I don’t have to challenge those guys at all,” Ryans said. “They understand the moment. They understand like why we’re built the way we’re built. It’s for or D-line has to do to dominate. When our D-line plays this way, not only does it help our defense, but it just brings enthusiasm to our entire team.”
Texans running back Joe Mixon came up with some huge fourth quarters to keep the Chargers offense off the field. Credit: AP
As brilliant as the defense played and as inconsistent as the offense seemed to perform at times, the offense put up some impressive numbers. The offense accumulated 429 yards of offense and won the time of possession battle 34:25 to 25:35. Nico Collins set a team-playoff receiving record with 122 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions. Mixon, who finished with a critical 106 rushing yards and a touchdown, came through big in the fourth quarter with time-consuming runs that kept the Chargers offense off the field.
As a result of a total team effort, Houston is believing again, and the Texans are off to the second round of the playoffs for a season-straight postseason.
“Everything is really coming together at the right time,” Stroud said. “I really feel like this is just the start and I’m really just amazed of the environment in there as well. I really believe that we’re just getting started, and hopefully we continue to get this momentum rolling.”
