There was nothing surprising about the way Week 9's matchup between the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans played out. With two of the NFL's best defenses involved, you knew it was going to be hard-hitting, low-scoring, and probably come down to the right leg of either Ka'imi Fairbairn or Wil Lutz.
Unfortunately for the Texans, despite five field goals from Fairbairn, the last kick of the game was courtesy of Wil Lutz, who drilled a 34-yard field goal as time expired to give Denver an 18-15 win, their sixth straight victory of the season. That kick capped an 11-point 4th quarter that saw the Broncos overcome a 15-7 deficit against a Texans defense that was, for the most part, dominant as usual on Sunday afternoon.
For the game, the Broncos turned the ball over twice, finished with just 271 yards of total offense and managed just 4.4 yards per play. And again, for over 45 minutes, Houston's defense allowed just one score all game. But on the final drive of the game, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix picked up 34 yards on a pair of backbreaking carries that put Denver in Wil Lutz field goal range.
Davis Mills comes in for a concussed CJ Stroud
You could look at this loss to the Broncos as the 'insult' to the 'injury' that was third-year quarterback CJ Stroud exiting early in the 2nd quarter after being concussed on a hit by Denver cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine.
Before he was knocked out of action, Stroud had completed 6 of his 10 pass attempts for 79 yards... a respectable start against one of the best defenses in the NFL. After Stroud left the game, it was up to Davis Mills to orchestrate the offense, and again, against a defense as stout as Denver's, the five-year veteran held his own, completing 17 of 30 passes for 137 yards and no turnovers.
The biggest area of disappointment for the Texans offense was a rushing attack that only managed 77 yards on 28 carries. Even playing with the lead for the majority of the game, Houston's backs couldn't get anything going. Nick Chubb was limited to 34 yards, and rookie Woody Marks finished with just 27 yards.
The Texans now find themselves in a deep 3-5 hole, and the schedule doesn't really let up moving forward. Although Houston should be favored in each of their next two games -- home for Jacksonville, at Tennessee -- a make-or-break three game stretch follows after that, with the Buffalo Bills coming to NRG Stadium on a Thursday night, followed by road trips to Indianapolis and Kansas City in back to back weeks.
In order to conceivably have any hope of making a push for the Playoffs, the Texans can't afford to drop one of these next two games, but with CJ Stroud -- and Tytus Howard's -- status up in the air, there are certainly no guarantees.