Texans defeat Dolphins

By Elwyn Henderson

    The 8-5 Houston Texans returned to NRG Stadium in Houston Sunday to entertain the 6-7 Miami Dolphins.

     Houston won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half.  Ka’Imi Fairbairn’s kickoff was returned across the 20 and Tua Tagovailoa came on the field with his offensive teammates to get the game rolling.  The ‘Fins managed to pick up one first down but the Houston defense forced a Jake Bailey punt on the second series.  The ball was returned up to the Texans 19 and CJ Stroud led his offense on the field for the first time.

     The offense moved down the field effortlessly, but stalled at the Miami 26, forcing Fairbairn to come in for a 44-yard field goal attempt.  The kick was good with 7:09 left in the first quarter and the Texans took a 3-0 lead.  The drive was 8 plays, 55 yards and took 4:11.

     Fairbairn’s ensuing kickoff was returned to the 28 but after a holding call on the return Tua and company began their second drive at their 18.  The Texans forced a three-and-out.  Bailey’s punt was returned from the 19 up to the 38 by Tank Dell and Stroud led the offense back to the field.

     It was a quick three-and-out and on the next Dolphins possession Tua led the Dolphins on a 12-play, 45-yard drive over 7:40 that resulted in a Jason Sanders 55-yard field goal with 11:35 left in the first half.  The kick tied the game 3-3.  

     The Texans went three-and-out on their next possession and Miami was moving the ball on their next possession when the defense force a Tua fumble that Houston recovered at the 28.

     The offense made short order and got into the end zone with 6:45 left in the half when Stroud hit Nico Collins on a 6-yard TD pass.  Fairbiarn added the PAT and the Texans went ahead 10-3.  The drive was 4 plays 28 yards and took 2:40 off the clock.

     Fairbairn’s kick came out to the 30 after a touchback and Tua and company hit the field again.  The visitors moved down the field but the defense forced a 36-yard Sanders field goal with 1:57 left in the half, bringing the score to 10-6.  The drive was 10 plays, 52 yards and took 4:48 off the second quarter clock.

     Following a touchback on Sanders’ kickoff Stroud and the Texans hit the field for one last time in the half with all 3 timeouts remaining.  They were moving the ball but Stroud got caught off guard with a snap from center that was recovered and returned to the Houston 38, giving Tua and his unit a chance to add points before the half concluded.

     It looked as though that would happen, but Calen Bullock intercepted Tagovailoa at his 26 and returned the ball 58 yards down to the Miami 5 and Stroud had one more chance to add points with 13 seconds left in the half.

     On the first play Stroud burned 6 seconds on a roll out and went out of bounds at the 5 with 7 seconds left.  On second down he threw an incomplete pass with 3 seconds left, brining Fairbairn out to end the half.  He nailed a 23-yard half-ending walk off field goal and the good guys led 13-6 at the intermission and would receive the ball to begin the second half.

     The Texans began at their 30 after a touchback and it looked as though they would have to punt the ball away but they got creative and did a direct snap that was then handed off and resulted in a 35-yard gain.  The drive continued and ended when Stroud hit Collins with 11:02 left in the third quarter on a 6-yard TD pass.  Fairbiarn hit the extra point and Houston went up 20-6.  The drive was 9 plays, 70 yards and took 3:58.

     On the next Dolphins drive Grant DuBose who was just coming back off injure reserve was hit hard in the head by Calen Bullock and he immediately collapsed on the ground with a serious injury.  Trainers and EMT personnel worked to stabilize him for over 10 minutes before he was finally taken off the field.  Players from both teams knelt in prayer on the field during the stoppage of play. 

     The Dolphins continued to move the ball down the field after play resumed,  but thanks to a holding an third down pass Sanders came in to attempt a 30-yard field goal.  Just at the snap of the ball Houston was called for off sides and Tua brought the offense back for a 4th and 2 play.  Tua hit Jonnu Smith on a 7-yard TD pass with 4:30 left in the quarter.  The extra point kick by Sanders was no good, but the visitors closed the gap to 20-12.  The drive was 71 yards in 11 plays and took 6:32.

     It was another quick three-and-out for Houston and following a return of Tommy Townsend’s kick the Dolphins set up at their 27. Tua moved his team down deep into Houston territory when Derek Stingley, Jr intercepted a pass and returned it up to the 18 and the Texans went back on the attack with 10:26 left in the game.

     There was no further scoring and the Texans ran out the clock after Derek Stingley’s second interception of the day and Houston moved their record to 9-5 and won the AFC South Division for the second season in a row following an Indianapolis Colts loss in a late afternoon game.

     An ecstatic Head Coach DeMeco Ryans addressed the media after the big win.

     “What a fun one. First off, like to just start off by just giving all praise, honor, and glory to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for continuously blessing us. It’s a huge honor to get to do what we do. Prayers go out to [Dolphins WR] Grant DuBose. Really seeing a guy down on the field like that is very hard to see, and we are just praying that all is well with him and that he recovers quickly as possible. Just overall for this game, just defensively our guys stepped up and did a really good job closing out the game the way we needed to. [CB Derek] Stingley [Jr.] is playing just unbelievable football right now. Ask him to cover, man coverage, to go and get two picks versus a really good offense, that was huge for us. [S] Calen [Bullock]  stepped up with a picking for us as wall. Our D-line, the way they rushed. [DE] Will [Anderson Jr.], [DE] Danielle [Hunter], they continue to wreak havoc on the opposing offenses, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage. Just overall to our entire defensively secondary. Thought the guys did a great job in coverage versus an explosive offense just executing the right way and everybody playing together, swarming. Really proud of [LB] Christian Harris for stepping up. Long battle back from injury, but he stepped up and was able to go out and play quality football for us.”

     When quarterback CJ Stroud met with the media after the big win the Mirror asked him if the team had a good feeling about being able to head to Kansas City this Saturday and getting a win over the 13-1 Chiefs.

     “Yeah, a lot of respect for those guy, back-to-back champs. [Chiefs QB Patrick] Mahomes is definitely the best in the league doing it at a very, very high level every year; somebody that I look up to. Just excited to go and line up against him and have an opportunity to play in an environment like that. I heard it’s crazy. I’m excited for it, but it’s not ever going to be a cake walk. That dude is really good.

[TE Travis] Kelce, somebody I really respect. Defense is very I would say underrated. Kept them in a lot of games and won a lot of games for them and helped them get turnovers and keep the offense to I think like under 20 points I believe. A lot of respect for them and excited to have that challenge.”

     After the Texans travel to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City Friday for a Saturday afternoon game against Patrick Mahomes and the 13-1 Kansas City Chiefs they will then have to turn right around and play the Baltimore Ravens at NRG Stadium on Christmas Day, so they have a very big challenge in front of them.  Regardless of the outcome of those games they KNOW that as AFC South Champions they will have a home playoff game at NRG Stadium.