The Texans beat the Cowboys in the team’s inaugural regular-season game.
Texans 2nd new franchise to win opener
This story ran in the Chronicle on Sept. 9, 2002. The headline and words are reprinted.
At the chaotic end, there was a team owner leaping for joy and a coach hugging anyone and everyone. There were players dancing and players hugging. Some seemed reluctant to even leave the field, seemingly intent on soaking in every incredible moment.
Most of all, there was the sellout crowd roaring its approval and shaking the shiny new stadium to its concrete and steel bones as the final seconds ticked off.
Texans 19, Dallas Cowboys 10.
The NFL’s newest team could not have dreamed of this. Not on this night. Not against this opponent. Two years ago, they were one man’s dream. One year ago, they were cardboard boxes stacked inside temporary offices.
Today, they’re unbeaten and in first place.
Their first regular-season game became their first remarkable moment as they rode two David Carr touchdown passes and huge performances by their defense and special teams to an improbable and historic victory Sunday night.
“I’m very proud of our team,” Texans coach Dom Capers said. “It was one of those games that you have a good feeling about as a coach because you saw the way they prepared. It’s a great feeling to see a group of players come together like this. Five months ago, these guys hadn’t even played together.”
Had the Texans attempted to script their first night in the NFL, they couldn’t have scripted it this way. Only one other NFL expansion team had ever won its first game, and that was the 1961 Minnesota Vikings.
Instead, they wanted a good show. They wanted traffic to flow smoothly, they wanted Reliant Stadium to look its best, and they wanted their young team to play hard and give fans a reason to be excited.
Only in their wildest dreams did the Texans dream of a victory.
Not on their opening night in the NFL. Not with five rookies in the starting lineup and 16 players in their first or second NFL seasons. And certainly not against the Cowboys, the franchise they’ll be forever measured against. And then again … The Texans set a tone early in the
game when Carr tossed a 19yard touchdown pass to tight end Billy Miller. Then they turned a Dallas turnover into a field goal and a 10-0 lead, and all of a sudden, a victory that had seemed beyond comprehension was within their reach.
“What I think about is how much improvement our team has made,” Texans owner Bob McNair said. “We’re executing the plan we set out to execute.” General manager Charley Casserly remembered turning to McNair at about this time and saying: “We’re going to win. We’re going to win.”
Television cameras later caught McNair leaping happily and Casserly shaking a fist in the air.
It’s not just that the Texans won. They knocked off a team that believes it’s good enough to go to the playoffs and a team that inspires more passion around the state than any other. Had the Texans rode those early punches to victory, that would have been one thing.
But they found themselves in a 10-10 tie in the fourth quarter, and the Texans responded again.
Carr delivered the winning points on a 65-yard touchdown pass to Corey Bradford when the young receiver leaped over future Hall of Fame safety Darren Woodson to make the catch.
The Texans clinched it once and for all when Seth Payne rushed into the end zone to throw Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter for a safety.
In the end, they won because Carr made just enough big plays and because it was the Cowboys who looked like the first-year expansion team. Dallas was penalized nine times for 117 yards and turned the ball over twice.
In one of the more highprofile Dallas-Houston matchups of all time, Houston won going away.
From the beginning of training camp, Capers had said he wanted to use the Houston heat as a sort of home-field advantage.
Because of scattered rain showers, the Texans decided to keep the retractable stadium roof closed, and in the process, Capers found another home-field advantage, one that may even be better than the heat. Reliant Stadium was
loud. Very loud. “I’m telling you, it was loud,” Texans running back James Allen said. “It was louder than anything. They were going nuts. Sometimes it got so loud that when they snapped the ball, I was just following everybody else. This city wanted it. This city deserves it. To stand there at the end and just listen to them all go crazy, that’s what it’s all about. It’s like the heavens were with us.”
ESPN analyst Joe Theismann called it the loudest stadium he’d ever heard, and the Cowboys probably wouldn’t argue.
Even if the Texans hadn’t won, Reliant Stadium passed with flying colors as an array of guests, including Gov. Rick Perry and NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, praised its beauty and intimacy.
Houston had not hosted an NFL game since the Oilers departed after the 1996 season, and fans roared with approval with their new team’s every step. A Dallas columnist had predicted the city would be embarrassed by the number of Cowboys fans in the crowd, but they could hardly be heard over the thunderclap of cheers for the new home team.
“Not too long ago, we had no stadium, no team, no organization,” McNair said. “Now, you’re standing in probably the finest stadium in America. This is a momentous occasion.”
McNair did a pretty good imitation of the happiest guy on earth as he walked Tagliabue and other visitors through the stadium with its wide concourses and dazzling city views.
Before the game, he and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones posed with the Governor’s Cup, the trophy Perry presented to the game’s winner. Since the two teams will only play a regular-season game every four years, it’s not likely to be as hotly contested as a Super Bowl trophy, but for now it’ll have to do.
As Jones attempted to speak during the ceremony, he was drowned out by boos. When McNair took the microphone, he got a standing ovation.
Jones and McNair are trying to arrange an annual preseason game between the two teams, and the first could be played in Mexico City next summer.
“Bob and the city did extraordinary things to get this franchise,” Tagliabue said. “They showed tenacity and teamwork. It speaks well for the future of the franchise.”
For Tagliabue, it was a special night. With Houston’s return to the NFL, he has now assisted three cities — Houston, Cleveland and Baltimore — that lost franchises in getting new ones.
Seattle, Detroit and New England are also opening new stadiums, and Tagliabue will visit them all. He was impressed with his first stop.
“This is a world-class stadium and may be the greatest in the world,” Tagliabue said. “I’ve seen a lot of stadiums around the world, and I haven’t seen any to match it. It’s very striking. It’s going to be wonderful for fans.”
Cowboys owner Jones was succinct.
“We get to sleep on this for four years,” he said. “I’m sure this will be with us for a long time.”
UPDATE
The Texans would finish their inaugural season with a 4-12 record and would have to wait another four years to face the Cowboys in a game that mattered.
Because of the NFL scheduling formula, the two teams play every fourth year in the regular season. The Cowboys won the next three, and the teams won’t match up again until 2018.
The exhibition game in Mexico City never came to pass, and the teams have met in nine of the last 14 years in preseason.