Jacob Martin becomes Houston Texans playoff hero
When the Houston Texans made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks this offseason, little did anyone know how valuable Jacob Martin would be in the playoffs.
Houston Texans fans celebrated the 22-19 overtime win on Saturday, seeing the team move to the Divisional Round of the playoffs. A big reason for the celebration is the sack on fourth-and-27 by Jacob Martin.
Remember this past offseason, the Texans traded veteran pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney to the Seahawks for a third-round pick, Barkevious Mingo and Martin, as it was one of the biggest trades of the entire offseason. Five months later, in the Wild Card round of the AFC Playoffs on Saturday at NRG Stadium, it was Martin who came up with one of the biggest plays of the game.
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On his Twitter page, Martin has a pinned tweet that says: “Just go make it happen…” On Saturday, that is exactly what he did in one of the biggest moments of the season.
For the fourth-and-27 play in the fourth quarter, the Bills were on the Texans’ 42-yard line. When the ball was snapped, Martin broke through a block attempt by the Bills’ offensive line, rushed Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen and took him to the ground for the turnover on downs with 1:35 left in the quarter.
That play kept the Bills from potentially gaining a first down — or even worse, a go-ahead touchdown — and at the time it kept the Texans in front at 19-16. Eventually the Bills kicked a field goal to force overtime, but the Texans still were able to win the game with a field goal of their own by Ka’imi Fairbairn in overtime.
Below is the play made by Martin on fourth down:
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1213617480582811653?s=20
Before this season, in a staff report by RotoWire on the CBS Fantasy Football page, the following was written about Martin in an article:
"“Texans fans won’t exactly be happy with the lack of star power coming back in the trade, but Martin proved serviceable as a depth linebacker last season for the Seahawks and figures to immediately compete with Brennan Scarlett for a starting role along with the recently acquired Mingo.”"
Well, on Saturday, Texans fans were celebrating Martin for his big-time clutch sack of Allen at a time that helped keep the lead. Other than this sack late in the fourth quarter, Martin didn’t stand out on the stat sheet, but who would have thought that the Clowney trade would pay a dividend this late in the season at one of the most crucial moments of the game?
OLB @JacobSpeaks_ brings down Bills QB Josh Allen for a loss of 19 yards, notching the #Texans third sack of the game.
— Houston Texans PR (@TexansPR) January 5, 2020
The defense's 3 sacks today are tied for the 3rd-most in a single game in Texans postseason history and are the most since the Wild Card Round in 2012 (3).
As an edge player, Martin had a Pro Football Focus grade of 56.3 in the regular season, and he had just three tackles, but did collect four sacks along the way this season.
The addition of Martin shows that anything can happen, and every player on the roster is there for a reason. On Saturday, Martin made one of the most important plays of the game and one of the biggest plays of his career.
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Due to his effort, he is a memorable part of the Texans moving on to the Divisional Round of the playoffs and keeping the season moving along in a wild game during the Wild Card Round.