Houston Texans didn’t score too soon on the final drive Monday Night

The Houston Texans scored on their final drive on Monday night against the New Orleans Saints with just 2 plays, taking only 13 seconds off the clock. Did they score too soon?

With the game on the line Monday night against the New Orleans Saints, the Houston Texans were down 21-27 with had 50 seconds left and no timeouts. They actually scored within two plays, giving Drew Brees and the Saints the ball back with 37 seconds left and one final timeout. This proved to be too much time for the Saints, as they drove down the field and were able to win the game on a 58-yard kick by Wil Lutz.

This has led many to ask whether the Texans scored too soon, however it’s not fair to ask this question. For starters, you have to take the points when you can, but the reason why it’s not fair is that many are forgetting how brilliant it was that the Texans were even able to score in such a predicament.

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We have to keep in mind the way the game had gone up to that point and the exact situation. The Texans didn’t have any timeouts left and had given up 6 sacks over the course of the game. Based on how mightily the Texans struggled to protect Deshaun Watson, who’s to say they wouldn’t have surrendered another sack had the drive extended longer? Another sack there would have been a drive killer and would have certainly ended the game. In fact, Watson got blasted even on the touchdown throw to the newly acquired Kenny Stills!

On top of that, Bill O’Brien has proven himself to be very bad with clock management, so why would anyone think O’Brien would have mastered the clock despite having no timeouts and only 50 seconds left? It’s not like the Texans were driving to get a field goal, they needed a touchdown to take the lead.

And it’s not even like this is what caused them to lose the game! Obviously the decision to play prevent when the Saints were only trying for a short-yardage completion in an attempt to shorten the distance of the kick for Lutz is what ultimately led to the loss. And even with that, Lutz nailed a 58-yard kick, which he had never done in his previous 3 years in the NFL.

It’s always fun to play the “what if” game, but you have to take the points when they’re there, simple and plain. If the Texans had won the game, I doubt there would be this many people asking if they scored too quickly.