Coming up with the improbable and clutch plays here and there in the second half had been the Texans calling card in putting in together this impressive season.
But when they needed those plays and opportunities during Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, they were nowhere to be found. As a consequence, the Texans’ magical season came to an end in Baltimore thanks to a 34-10 loss, in which the Ravens scored 24 unanswered points during the final two quarters.
The Ravens, the AFC’s No.1 seed, move on to host the AFC Championship Game next weekend. The Texans are left to reflect on a season in which they went from being a three-win team to the talk of the NFL with their sudden transformation to the AFC South champs with a rookie head coach and rookie quarterback at the controls.
“I’m proud of our guys for their effort, being relentless throughout this entire season, [I’m] proud of them for getting to this moment,” said Texans first-year coach DeMeco Ryans, who should be the top candidate for NFL coach of the Year after taking over a Texans team that won just three games last season and improved the record to 11-8 this season. “It’s not a moral victory of just being here, and it’s not what we set out to do, but [I’m] proud of our team. This team accomplished a lot this year and is looking forward to the future.”
The focus changed Saturday once the Texans realized they simply had no answers for quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in the second half after going into halftime tied at 10. Jackson, the most likely MVP, did pretty much what he wanted in the second half on the way to silencing critics who said the dual-threat quarterback was incapable of winning a big playoff game.
In history-making fashion, Jackson completed 16 of 22 passes for 152, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns in helping the Ravens outrush the Texans 229 yards to 38 yards on the day.
Jackson started the season off with an impressive win over the Texans, and he ended the Texans season with another impressive performance.
“He was just himself. I mean, he took what we gave him, he made plays when he needed to,” said Texans defensive end Jonathan Greenard. “I mean, a guy like that, he’s seen us already and saw how we wanted to attack him. We had his number for a little bit and then he just started to make more plays.”
Texans rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, who has been brilliant throughout much of the season, had a decent game stats-wise, but he and the offense couldn’t do what was necessary against an explosive team like Baltimore and that is score points. Stroud completed 19 of 33 passes for 175 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.
But Stroud and the offense never scored a touchdown, with the Texans’ lone touchdown coming on a 67-punt return in the second quarter that tied the game 10-10. The Texans a couple of costly penalties stall potential scoring drives and kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn also missed a field goal.
The loss dropped the franchise to 0-5 in the divisional round of the playoffs and keeps the Texans as the only NFL team to make it the conference championship game.
“Just offensively, [we]can’t keep going backwards like that,” said Stroud, who should be the Offensive Rookie of the Year. “It’s too many penalties, too many missed assignments. On my part, I have to run the offense better. I just got to get better there.”
