Texans Let Another One Slip Away

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Created on Tuesday, 14 December 2010 01:05

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 May 2013 07:51

Written by Travis Pulver

With their playoff hopes on the line one would have hoped that the Houston Texans would have come out fired up and ready to play the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football. Instead they looked almost as if they were sleep walking through the majority of the first half as they got behind 21-0.

Andre Johnson hauled in a 46-yard pass from Matt Schaub to close the gap at the half to 21-7. However, that ended up mattering little when the Texans missed at least four attempts to tackle David Reed who returned the opening kick in the second half 103 yards to stretch the lead back out to 21 points, 28-7,

It was at that point that the amazing appeared to happen. Suddenly Schaub couldn’t miss and the Ravens could not stop the Texans offense. After punting four times in the first half, Matt Turk never saw the field in the second half. Houston scored on every drive they had in the second half including two 90+ yard drives in the fourth quarter.

Momentum was completely in their corner as they took the field for their first drive in the overtime period. The defense had done their job only giving up 10 yards to the Ravens forcing them to punt. With the ball at the nine-yard line it appeared as if the hot hand of Schaub was about to take the Texans on another impressive drive, this time for the win. Instead he threw an interception on the first play which was easily returned for a touchdown.

"We never punched them in the mouth on defense or moved the ball on them on offense early in the game. It showed. We always have to battle back and make these tremendous runs. It wears on you. It’s tough to bounce back from 21 points," said defensive tackle Shaun Cody.

It was the first time in the NFL since 2005 that an overtime game was won by an interception return for a touchdown. It was also a record setting performance for the Texans. No other team has ever overcome a 14 or more point deficit in the fourth quarter to lead or tie only to lose in the end as many times as the Texans have (4).

"It’s disturbing because that’s happened too many times. But we battled back again and had a chance to win."

Schaub threw a Houston record 62 passes easily surpassing the mark previously held by David Carr. He completed 50 percent of them for 393 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Even though it was a Schaub interception that ended the game, head coach Gary Kubiak was quick to come to his defense.

"Matt put is in position to win," coach Gary Kubiak said. "We wouldn’t have been in position to win if not for him."