Cowboys edge Texans

By Elwyn Henderson

It seemed appropriate that the Dallas Cowboys would be the Houston Texans opponent Sunday when the Texans officially celebrated their 25th season in the NFL considering that their very first game as a franchise was against the Cowboys on September 8, 2002. Houston shocked the NFL world by winning their first ever game 19-10 on that Sunday night.

The Texans entered the game at 0-3 while the Cowboys came in at 1-2 after finding a way to lose a game they should have one just seven days earlier in Rio against the Baltimore Ravens. All of the media members in the press box were talking about the same thing prior to kickoff. Despite this game was just the fourth game of the season, the loser would NOT be able to bounce back and make the playoffs at the end of the regular season.

Mainly due to the fact the game was at Reliant Stadium in Houston, the Texans came in as a 3-point favorite in the contest. When the game ended, Dallas walked of the field with a 34-30 win to even their season record to 2-2.

Dallas won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half to begin the contest. Houston was penalized on the return and began their first drive at their 14.

On the first play CJ Stroud hit a returning from injury Nico Collins on a 45-yard completion down to the Dallas 40. Houston continued marching down the field after the big play and the completed the possession with a 7-yard TD pass from Stroud to Collins with 10:01 left in the first quarter. Ki’imi Fairbairn hit the PAT and Houston took an early 7-0 lead. The drive was 8 plays, 85 yards and took 4:59.

Fairbairn’s kickoff after the score was downed in the end zone by KaVontae Turpin and Dallas began their first possession at their 35.

Dak Prescott led the offense down the field but the drive stalled at the Houston 22. On a 4th and 6 Brandon Aubrey came in to attempt a 39-yard field goal. The kick was good and Dallas was on the board with 5:10 left in the first quarter, trailing 7-3. The drive was 10 plays, 44 yards and took 4:41 off the clock.

After another penalty on Aubrey’s kickoff after the score, Houston began their second drive at their 7.

On the second play of the possession Stroud completed another long pass down to the Dallas 31. On the next play the Texans were called for holding, pushing the ball back to the 39. The Cowboys defense forced a 51-yard field goal by Fairbairn that was good, bringing the score to 10-3 in favor of the home team with 1:49 left in the opening frame. The 6–play, 59-yard drive took 3:21.

Turpin returned the kickoff after the field goal from his 9 out to the 32 and Dallas went back to work on offense.

Prescott led the team down to the 32 and on 4th and 5 Aubrey came in and booted a 50-yard field goal, bringing the score to 10-6 with 12:30 left in the first half. The drive was 8 plays, 36 yards and took 4:19.

The Cowboys finally got a three-and-out on the next Houston possession. Turpin returned the 56-yard punt for 16 yards up to the Dallas 31 and the Cowboys were in position to be able to take the lead if they could move the 69 yards into the end zone on their third possession but it wasn’t in the cards.

The two teams exchanged punts and Dallas got the ball back with 7:10 left in the first half at their 36 following a Turpin return.

Dallas moved the ball just enough for Aubrey to attempt a 62-yard field goal. Unfortunately, the Dallas line forgot to block Will Anderson, Jr and he came untouched up the field and blocked the kick, giving Stroud and company the ball back at the Cowboys 48 with just under five minutes left in the half.

The defense did just enough to force a 39-yard Fairbiarn field goal with 2:05 left in the half, putting Houston up 13-6. The drive was a 6-play, 28-yard affair that took 2:53.

Turpin returned the next kick 22 yards up to his 26 and we hit the 2-minute warning Dallas urgently needing to find the end zone and set up with a chance to get a 2 for 1 since they were to receive the second half kickoff.

Dallas went backwards and on 4th and 15 Aubrey attempted a 65-yard field goal. The ball went wide left, setting up Houston in great position at the Dallas 45 with 26 seconds left in the half.

Stroud led his unit out, hoping to get enough yards to at least get a field goal before the half ended. With 2 seconds left, Fairbairn came in to attempt a 54-yard field goal to end the half. The kick was good and Houston went up 16-6 as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms to try to regroup for the second half. The short drive was 4 plays, 9 yards and took 26 seconds.

Turpin returned the second half kickoff 47 yards to the Houston 49 and Prescott and company were set up in great shape. They took full advantage, moving the 49 yards for their first TD of the day in 2:05 and 4 plays. The score came on an 8-yard run by Javonte Williams with 12:55 left in the third quarter. Aubrey hit the extra point and Dallas cut the deficit to 16-13.

Special teams put Dallas right back in a big hole, giving up a 53-yard return of Aubrey’s kickoff down to the Dallas 38.

Stroud led his charges down the field, hoping to get the touchdown back quickly. He did just that, hitting Nico Collins on a 4-play, 22-yard TD pass with 10:50 left in the third quarter. To add insult to injury, Dallas was called for unnecessary roughness on Collins, a penalty that would be assessed on the ensuing kickoff. Fairbairn added the point after and Houston led 23-13.

The Cowboys came right back, moving 55 yards in 11 plays over 4:01. The score came on a 1-yard run by Williams and after Aubrey added the extra point the Pokes trailed 23-20.

The Dallas defense came to life on the next Houston possession and when Prescott and the offense returned to the field they took 17 plays to move 96 yards to the end zone and ran 8:47 off the clock. The score came on a 2-yard run by Williams with 6:49 left in the third quarter. Aubrey’s extra point try was good and the ‘Boys took a 27-23 lead but they knew the game was far from over.

Sure enough, CJ Stroud led his offense on a 97-yard TD drive that took 13 plays and 4:32. The score came on a 6-yard run with 2:23 left in the game. Fairbairn’s PAT after the score put the home team up 30-27.

With the game on the line Prescott and the Cowboys offense came through as they moved 74 yards in 16 plays and took 1:43 off the clock to score the winning TD. The score came on a 12-yard pass to Lamb, giving him 17 catches and 189 yards for the game. The score came with 40 seconds left in the contest. Aubrey’s point after was good and Dallas took a 34-30 lead.

Stroud got his team in position to throw a last gasp Hail Mary pass into the end zone on the game’s final play but the Dallas defense knocked the ball down to preserve the victory and save the Cowboys season. The win moved them to 2-2 on the season while the loss kept the Texans winless at 0-4.

Dallas will hit the field again this Thursday night when they host the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium in a 7:15 PM game, while Houston will travel to Nashville to take on AFC South foe Tennessee next Sunday, October 11th in a 12 PM contest.

When Coach Brian Schottenheimer met with the media after the big road victory the Mirror asked him if the victory would make it easier for the team to get ready to play again in four days.

“I think it drives home the big point that we were making that if we stay consistent in our preparation, if we stay consistent in our belief that we’re going to find ways to win these games. We talked about this the other day. I think Todd [Williams] asked me about it. How do you learn how to finish? Well, the best way to do it is to do it and we did that tonight. But we know how to do these short weeks. We’re the Cowboys. They put us on short weeks a lot. It will be a quick trip back to Dallas. We’ll enjoy tonight and we’ll be back at it bright and early tomorrow morning getting ready for the Bucs.”

When Prescott met with the media he was asked if the team was expressing their faith more this season.

“Absolutely. I think credit ‘Schotty’ [Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer] and his leadership and the way that he’s opened that up. That’s who he is. That’s who I am. That’s who a lot of the guys on our team are and trying to be contagious and understand we’re all here because of God and we’re all here to serve a greater purpose. That’s my point about opening your perspective up when things happen, win, lose, or draw, what’s the purpose? What does God have meaning for this? We may not always have the answers for it but we know what God wants us to do in our response and that’s be the best versions of ourselves, serving Him, serving others and doing it with just pure love. I’m thankful for this team. We’ve got great chaplains in Jonathan and Dr. Evans and so they’re helping lead that cause and that’s life. I’ve been through so much in my life. God’s always been the reason and, yeah. Who I fall back on and my refuge, as I say, I can’t thank Him enough and never will be able to thank Him enough and just to see that transcend throughout our team, starting with our head coach is special. It’s something that we take pride in. At the end of the day, it’s about giving Him the glory. From that, good things will come, all great things will come, so thankful for that.”

From the losers, Coach DeMeco Ryans was asked about overcoming the 0-4 start and what his message was to the team. He replied, “It’s the same message. The only people that can do anything about the 0-4 start are the guys in that locker room. Coaches, players, we all have to stick together. It’s easy when you are in this spot to point fingers or blame this person or that person. That doesn’t solve anything. When things get hard, adversity hits, you climb your way through it by sticking together. That’s the only way I know. Been there, done it. That’s the only way I know and we’ll keep working. We’ll get back to the drawing board, keep working, but a lot of guys did a lot of good things today. A lot of good things. My message is it hurts me that I can’t go in and celebrate those positives that a lot of guys showed today on the field for us.”

When Stroud came in for his presser after the loss he was asked what the team had to do to get on the right track.

“We have to finish. I think we’ve shown that we can create explosives, we can have high-scoring games, we could get ahead when we need to. I think the best thing that we need to do and the main thing we need to do is finish. That’s not just the end of the game. That’s third down. I thought we were not great on third down today. I think we can finish better there, but also just as a team just together trying to finish every play, every down, playing it like it’s your last and I think that’s what we need to be able to fix.”

There is still a lot of the season left to play and the Cowboys revived their hopes for a good year with the win, but the Texans are almost certainly doomed to miss the playoffs after still being winless after four games. Stay tuned, there’s a lot more football to play.