Houston Texans lose to NFL Refs and the Oakland Raiders

Blown calls early and late doomed the Houston Texans in their latest loss as they fell to the Oakland Raiders 27-20 on Monday Night Football

It was a game that started and ended with some bad breaks for the Houston Texans. Those bad breaks started early on as the Texans were robbed of what should have been a 66-yard touchdown pass. Receiver DeAndre Hopkins took a pass out of the slot from quarterback Brock Osweiler and turned it up the sidelines before being called out of bounds as the Oakland 40.

ESPN replays showed that Hopkins never was out of bounds and should not have had the play called dead after gaining 26. The drive then stalled and Houston had to settle for a field goal thanks to the error by the refs.

Their next bad break came after the Raiders first score of the game. Down 7-3 rookie running back muffed a kickoff and Oakland recovered. The defense held firm and kept Oakland out of the end zone on that one, forcing a field goal from the one-yard line.

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From there they tried to get some good breaks. A dropped interception allowed Houston to continue to try and knot things up. They also got a holding call against Raiders cornerback D.J. Hayden on a third-and-7 which extended the drive as Houston was able to tie it up at 10 apiece with a beautiful touchdown pass to rookie receiver Braxton Miller.

In the second half things settled down as the teams continued to trade punches. Lamar Miller ran a short touchdown to give Houston the lead. The Raiders tied things up with a long pass to their fullback Jamize Olawale who went for 75 yards on the broken play by the Texans defense, who had been stellar on the night before that play.

The refs again handed a bad break to Houston on a late fourth-down play. Head coach Bill O’Brien gambled with just over six minutes to go. The call was a run up the middle in which running back Akeem Hunt seemed to easily pass the first down markers, but the refs again did the the NFL refs do best — they messed up the play.

They called Hunt short of the first down, and even after it was challenged they somehow called it short. The terrible call allowed Oakland the opportunity to take the lead back 27-20 on a touchdown by receiver Amari Cooper.

Houston was unable to score on their next drive and Oakland was able to run out the clock. It was a better showing than most road games for the Texans, but the terrible calls by the refs became too much to overcome.

Houston falls to 6-4 on the season. The Raiders are now 8-2.