Out of the gate running
Victory means a bit more for the well-traveled Taylor
Texans running back Phillip Lindsay (30) gets swarmed by teammates after his 5-yard touchdown run in the third quarter against Jacksonville on Sunday. The Texans went on to win their season opener 37-21 at NRG Stadium.
Tyrod Taylor proudly pumped his fist. Smiled.
Was knocked to the ground, then quickly bounced up and kept running forward.
Smiled again after throwing another sharp touchdown.
And when Texans 27, Jacksonville Jaguars 7 at halftime was official on the big board, the 32-year-old quarterback — who wasn’t supposed to start a single game for the 2021 Texans and was signed only as backup insurance for former franchise QB Deshaun Watson — headed to the home locker room to ringing cheers.
Cheers that echoed
throughout NRG Stadium for the rebuilding Texans’ season opener.
Cheers that acknowledged everything Taylor and his Texans were unexpectedly unleashing during a season in which Houston’s team was widely predicted to be the NFL’s worst.
Cheers that, on some level, captured everything Taylor has been through since he entered the league as a sixth-round pick in 2011 and everything the Texans have been through since Watson relied on others to insist he never wanted to play for the Texans again.
“It was fun,” said Taylor, who completed 21 of 33 passes for 291 yards, two touchdowns and a 112.1 rating. “It’s never about me. It’s about coming out and doing whatever it takes to help the team win. We came away (Sunday) with the win, and that’s always fun. I was excited. It was good to have fans back in the stadium.”
The non-Watson Texans were led by their new QB on Sunday.
It was a blowout. A stomping. A smooth 37-21 win best captured by 449 total offensive yards for the current AFC South leader.
Taylor’s Texans started 1-0 on a day when No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence threw three interceptions for the rebuilding Jaguars and first-year coach Urban Meyer coached like he didn’t belong in the NFL.
And let’s be honest.
The Texans didn’t need Watson on this Sunday.
Didn’t miss him.
Did just fine with D4 theoretically relaxing somewhere else, starting to collect $10.5 million this season to do nothing for the Texans while facing multiple investigations and more than 20 accusations.
Taylor was the perfect answer for these Texans in Week 1.
“Tyrod’s job is to get us in the end zone and score points. He did that,” said David Culley, who is a perfect 1-0 as an NFL head coach.
Beating up on the horrendous Jaguars might be as good as it gets in 2021 for the Texans. They should be 1-1 after playing the Browns in Cleveland next weekend. But you had to be a serious hater if you couldn’t find fullcircle joy in Taylor’s Week 1 W.
He was precise, efficient and … gutsy.
His confidence grew as the points stacked up for the home crew and the minutes ticked down.
He threw two deep balls to Brandin Cooks that electrified NRG.
“It was awesome. Just the way that he came out leading,” said Cooks, who totaled 132 receiving yards and averaged 26.4 on five catches. “The first drive didn’t go how we wanted, but we recalculated and went out there and started moving the ball. He’s a great leader, and he makes plays.”
Taylor is also the veteran QB who bounced from Baltimore to Buffalo to Cleveland to the Los Angeles Chargers, watched his starting job disappear a few times, and suffered a punctured lung via a team doctor before the Texans called in March in need of
a new backup.
“He’s a smooth operator,” said veteran running back Mark Ingram, who ran for a game-high 85 yards on 27 carries. “He’s confident. He has the ability. Great leader in the huddle. … He just did a great job (Sunday). I’m happy for him. We came into the league together, and he’s just overcome a lot of adversity. He’s just a great player, man.”
We love to celebrate and promote the big names in pro football. Tom Brady. Patrick Mahomes. Aaron Rodgers. Watson.
Year after year, season after season, we’re reminded that the NFL is really about the names that are passed over and eventually forgotten in a few years.
The non-superstars. The other QBs. The incredible athletes who spend a few years in the league, wash out, then move on to a
non-football life in the real world. The Taylors.
I can’t tell you how long No. 5 will be the Texans’ starter in 2021. First-year general manager Nick Caserio used his first draft pick as the Texans’ GM on unproven Stanford QB Davis Mills in the third round of the most recent draft. If the Texans end up as bad as 99.9 percent of Football America predicted, they could use their first-round pick in the 2022 draft on another young QB.
Taylor is closer to the end than the beginning. But his first start for the Texans was brilliant. And I guarantee you Taylor will remember his first victory in white, red and blue for the rest of his life.
The buzz.
The pride.
The joy.
The cheers that grew louder
and louder as a partly filled stadium realized the Texans were actually going to win on this Sunday, increasingly believing in a home team that spent the offseason replacing old names with new faces and numbers.
“That was something that the guys leaned on in the locker room, just playing for one another,” Taylor said. “Not necessarily doing it for anything outside of the locker room. Obviously, we have families. But more so just playing for the guy next to you. We did that.”
D4 wasn’t needed as a new season began.
T5 was the winning QB for the 1-0 Texans.
Taylor deserved this life victory.