There was a brief moment, maybe two minutes of real time, where it looked as if things may actually, improbably, break right for the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon. Early in the opening window of games, Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward scrambled into the end zone to give the Titans an early 7-0 lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
At the same time, thanks to the right leg of Ka'imi Fairbairn, the Texans were out to a 3-0 lead against the Indianapolis Colts in a game that very few expected the reeling Colts would put up much of a fight in. But as World's Greatest Boss Michael Scott once said, "Well, well, well. How the turntables."
In what seemed like just the blink of an eye, Riley Leonard found a streaking Alec Pierce for a 66-yard touchdown to give the Colts a 7-3 lead, and just as quickly, the Jaguars unleashed an absolute onslaught against the Titans defense with Ward sidelined for the remainder of the game with a right shoulder injury.
By the midway point of the 3rd quarter, CJ Stroud had been removed from the game, Davis Mills was in, and for the rest of the way, the priority for the Texans shifted to exiting the game without any injuries. 5, 6, or 7 seed be damned. Still, the Texans had enough answers throughout, most of which came courtesy of the aforementioned right leg of Ka'imi Fairbairn, to secure a 38-30 win in front of the home crowd on the final Sunday of the regular season.
With the win over Indy -- coupled with Jacksonville's convincing 41-7 win over the hapless Titans -- the Texans locked up the 5-seed in the AFC, securing a Wild Card Round matchup with the winner of tonight's de facto AFC North Title Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. It's possible that the Texans will be road favorites in Round 1, but Houston suddenly needs to be concerned about the state of their league best defense.
Regardless of the 30 points surrendered to Riley Leonard and co. today, Houston will end the season topping most defensive categories, but it's been a lackluster final few weeks of the season for a unit that had been holding opponents to under 15 points per game for much of the season. However, over their last four games, Houston's D has given up an average of 21.7 points per game, and that's come against some of the league's most uninspiring offenses.
The Texans defense did secure two timely turnovers against Indianapolis... the first came early in the 4th quarter, when Riley Leonard was forced to step up in the pocket, and on a throw intended for rookie tight end Tyler Warren, Tommy Togiai's interior pressure was enough to force Leonard into throwing a wobbler that ended up in the arms of rookie cornerback Alijah Huzzie for his first career interception.
That turnover resulted in Ka'imi Fairbairn's fifth of six field goals for the game. Unless Los Angeles Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker connects on seven field goals against Denver in the late afternoon window, Fairbairn will end the season as the league-leader in field goals made with 44.
The second turnover of the game came on the final play of the game, a pitchy-pitchy woo-woo -- what's up, SVP -- fumble recovery returned for a touchdown for Togiai. Amazingly, this is the second win of the season that has ended up such a play for the Texans, the first coming against the Jaguars in a victory that started this nine-game run that pushed Houston into the Playoff field.
Now all the Texans can do is wait until about 10:30 pm CT tonight to find out if they'll be taking a 3 hour flight to Pittsburgh, or a 3 hour flight to Baltimore. Either way, DeMeco Ryans will have plenty to address with his team when he begins implementing the game plan for the Wild Card Round.