Raiders edge Texans

By Elwyn Henderson

The Houston Texans returned to Reliant Stadium Thursday night for the second Thursday night preseason game in a row when they hosted the Las Vegas Raiders. Houston came in at 1-0 in preseason while the Raiders entered the encounter at 0-1.

The starters for both teams were expected to play one series. Las Vegas won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. The kickoff by Matt Gay was taken at the 10 and returned up to the 31 where CJ Stroud and the starting backfield made their first appearance of the preseason.

The offense looked crisp as Woody Marks ran the ball effectively behind the revamped offensive line. The drive ended with a 20-yard TD run by Marks with 10:05 left in the first quarter. The PAT was good and Houston led 7-0. The drive was 10 plays, 69 yards and took 4:54.

The kickoff after the score by Ka’imi Fairbairn was returned up to the 26 where Fernando Mendoza came out as the starting quarterback on the Raiders first possession of the night.

After completing a long pass Mendoza was intercepted for a pick-6 of 80 yards by Wade Woodaz. The score came with 8:18 left in the opening frame. Fairbairn added the extra point and Houston was up 14-0.

The ensuing kickoff by Fairbairn was downed in the end zone and Mendoza and company began their second drive at their 35. The swarming Houston defense forced a three-and-out and AJ Cole punted the ball down inside the Texans 5 but a Raiders player was called for illegal touching as he went out of bounds and came back in and was the first person to touch the ball. That led to a touchback ruling and Houston began their next drive at their 20.

Just as expected the first team was down after a successful first possession and Davis Mills came in at quarterback with the second team offense.

Mills moved the offense down to the Vegas 32 and on a 4h and 2 Fairbairn booted a 51-yard field goal to put the Texans up 17-0 with 3:04 left in the quarter. The drive was 8 plays, 48 yards and took 3:35 of clock time.

Fairbairn’s next kickoff went out of bounds inside the 20 resulting in the Raiders getting the ball on their 40 to begin their next possession.

Mendoza struggled in the possession but did manage to move the offense down to the Houston 34. Gay came in and kicked a 52-yard field goal with 13:34 left in the half to get the visitors on the board and the Houston lead was 17-3. The drive was 8 plays, 26 yards and took 4:30.

After a 23-yard return from the goal line Mills and the offense went back to work. The Raiders forced the first punt of the game from the Vegas 49. The punt was fair caught at the 9 and Mendoza came back on the field with the offense with 8:01 left in the half.

The Raiders moved the ball but eventually had to punt the ball and it was fair caught at the 9 and Mills and the Texans offense hit the field again with 3:39 left in the half with a chance to run the 2-minute offense.

A promising drive resulted in a 57-yard Fairbairn field goal with 38 seconds left till halftime. The 52-yard drive was 10 plays and took 3:01 and the successful kick brought the score to 20-3 in favor of the home team.

It was a quick three-and-out and after a Vegas punt Houston got the ball back at their 26 where Mills took a knee to end the half. The Raiders were set to receive the second half kickoff.

As one would expect, the second half was played with players on the bubble who were trying to make a statement to make the team. As a result, the teams exchanged punts to begin the third quarter. Then Vegas punted again and on their next possession the Texans fumbled the ball away at their 39 and the Raiders recovered. They moved the 39 yards to their first TD of the game over 2:45 and took 6 plays to get into the end zone. The score came on a 4o-yard run by Dylan Laube with 4:57 left in the third quarter. Backup kicker Kansei Matsuzawa kicked the extra point and the visitors cut the Houston lead in half, 20-10. There was no further scoring in the quarter.

The Raiders scored again when Dare Ogunbowale ran into the end zone from 9 yards out with 7:36 left in the game. The extra point try by Matsuzawa was no good, making the score 20-16. The drive was 12 plays, 93 yards and took 6:30.

There was no more scoring in the game until the Raiders put together a 96-yard drive in just 8 plays and scored on 4-yard Aidan O’Connell pass with just 18 seconds remaining. The extra point was no good for the second attempt in a row, but Vegas took a 22-20 lead with just 18 seconds remaining. Houston tried to get something going but third string quarterback Brett Rypien was intercepted with 1 second left and the game ended. With the loss the Texans moved to 1-1 and Las Vegas also moved to 1-1 in preseason. The Texans will close preseason out next week with a trip to Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers Friday night in a 6 PM game. The game will be broadcast on ABC.

Following the game Coach DeMeco Ryans held his press conference with the media in attendance and was asked his thoughts on the positives in the game and what the team needs to improve on.

“What I really liked tonight was the way we improved as a team. Starting off with our offense, the way they came out, opened the game, starting drive, driving the ball down the field like we did. I thought the offensive line blocked really well. [RB] Woody [Marks] had some nice runs. Credit to [QB] C.J. [Stroud], he made some really good decisions. He didn’t throw it around a ton, but when he did throw, it was good decisions with the football. Moved us up and down the field, so I’m proud of what those guys went out there and did. Defensively the first group did a really good job as well going out, getting some stops. [LB] Wade [Woodaz] came through with the big play, getting the interception for a touchdown. That’s our mantra, what we’re built on, attacking the football. When we do that, it puts us in a really good position. I saw a lot of improvements from our team from Week 1 to where we are now. Definitely played our style of football, our brand of football. I felt we were the more physical team. I felt like guys played fast, played with some confidence on offense. I’m pleased with the outing, what our guys did early on in the game. Don’t like the outcome of how it ended, most certainly. Our backup guys have a lot to improve upon. That first half was a really good half of football for us as a team.”

When quarterback CJ Stroud came in for his presser he was asked about his thoughts on the first team’s offensive performance to begin the game that ended with a touchdown.

“I liked our pace in and out the huddle. I liked the calls ‘Cales’ [Offensive Coordinator Nick Caley] made. I liked the guys I was out there with. It was smooth. I had a good time. It’s always fun playing. It was really fun to play.”

Training Camp is officially ending early next week for the Texans and they will have a joint practice with the Panthers in Carolina next Wednesday before next Friday night’s game against the Panthers.