Let's start here: You're on this webpage right now because something about the headline caught your eye. Either you're a diehard Houston Texans fan who wants to consume as much content about your team as possible, or you just couldn't resist a clickbaity headline that included buzzwords like absolutely bonkers. But before we get to the Texans part, or explore exactly what it was the Texans did that was absolutely bonkers, I think it's important we put into context just how long ago 1948 was.
Putting it simply, 1948 was 78 years ago. That means this 'absolutely bonkers feat' pre-dates seat belts in cars, remote controls for televisions, and credit cards for unhealthy overspending. We were still over 20 years from putting a man on the moon, 30 years from having the most primitive form of GPS, 40 years from being able to access the world wide web, and over 50 years from the birth of YouTube, which is the closest we may get in our lifetime to an actual time machine.
What I'm getting at here is it was a long time ago.
In fact, it was so long ago, that this feat wasn't even accomplished in the National Football League. It took place in the All-American Football Conference, a league dominated by the Cleveland Browns -- that alone should tell you how long ago this happened -- and never were the Brownies more dominant than they were in 1948.
Playing for the chance to win a third consecutive AAFC title, the Browns routed the Buffalo Bills by the final score of 49-7 in the 1948 AAFC Championship Game, and they did so on the back of a defense that allowed just 13.6 points per game during a 14-0 campaign. In that Championship Game blowout, Cleveland's defense did something that no other group had done up to that point, and hadn't been done again until the Houston Texans walloped the Pittsburgh Steelers to the tune of a 30-6 Monday Night Football beatdown.
Until the Texans put two defensive touchdowns on the board in the 4th quarter -- a Sheldon Rankins fumble recovery and a Calen Bullock pick six -- the 1948 Browns were the only team in professional football history that managed to return both an interception and a fumble for a touchdown in a postseason game.
While it may come as a surprise that dominant defenses like the 1985 Chicago Bears, 2000 Baltimore Ravens or 2013 Seattle Seahawks didn't replicate this feat, it shouldn't be a surprise that the 2025 Houston Texans joined this exclusive club. We're talking about the most talented, well-coached and hungriest defense in the NFL. A unit that wholeheartedly believes they can walk the walk AND talk the talk each and every game day.
“Every single day we come to the building, that’s our mindset,” Calen Bullock said after the win, per Mike Jones of The Athletic. “We’re the best defense, so we’ve got to show it, and we got to work throughout the week to prove that we are the best defense. So when we go out there and we’ve got that confidence, nothing could hold us back but ourselves.”
Quarterback CJ Stroud, who had his own struggles with turnovers throughout Monday night's win, didn't seem surprised at all that this is what his defense was able to do.
“Our defense has played like this all year,” said Stroud. “They’ve held us up. … It’s crazy to think the last three wild-card games I’ve played in, they’ve always had a pick six or some type of two-turnover game. When you have a defense like that, it’s really encouraging.”