ClutchPoints
The Houston Texans are quietly one of the hottest teams in the NFL, and now they are safely into the divisional round after getting a big win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. Houston’s defense shut down Aaron Rodgers and company and tacked on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to beat the Steelers 30-6.
While Houston’s defense has been nails all season long, coming into the playoffs as arguably the best unit in football, the offense has been inconsistent both in the running game and through the air. That was no different on Monday night, when the offense moved the ball pretty well but tripped over its own feet multiple times with mistakes by quarterback CJ Stroud.
Incredibly, Stroud fumbled the ball five different times in the win over the Steelers, losing two of them on strip-sacks in the pocket. He also threw a brutal interception in the red zone on third down that cost the Texans at least three points.
Against an offense like Pittsburgh’s that is helpless against the Houston defense, Stroud’s mistakes didn’t come back to bite the Texans. However, in the Divisional Round, he will need to be much more tidy against a New England Patriots defense that is getting healthy and peaking at the right time.
This Houston offense isn’t an explosive one like the Patriots have on the other side with Drake Maye at quarterback, so Houston will have to win on the margins in this game. The turnover margin will be one big part of that, which is the first thing Stroud has to clean up.
During the regular season, the Texans had the second-best turnover margin in the NFL at plus-17. Houston was second in the league in least total giveaways (12) and had the third-most takeaways (29), so this had become a strength that DeMeco Ryans had been able to rely on.
With three giveaways on Monday night, and the fact that it could’ve been more, a troubling trend continued for the Texans in some of their biggest games of the season. He also had a pair of interceptions in a big game against the Chargers in Week 17, so he will want to reel in the turnovers on Sunday to get the Texans to the AFC title game.
On the other side, the Patriots have raced out to a 15-3 mark this season despite only being plus-3 in turnover margin during the regular season. The Pats only had 19 takeaways on the season, which ranked near the bottom of the league. New England also may be without one of its best playmakers on defense in this game, as star cornerback Christian Gonzalez is in concussion protocol, though it looks like he is trending towards playing.
One of the reason why Stroud’s shaky game in the first round didn’t come back to bite...
