SOLOMON: GOOD, BAD TEXANS SHOW UP.
After the bad Texans took the field for almost three quarters, the good Texans finally showed
You never know which Texans team is going to show up.
Well, Saturday, both of them did.
The good Texans are better than the bad Texans. Barely.
For the better part of three quarters, the Texans lived down to their reputation of being a team that does not answer the bell in the playoffs.
But as they were well on their way to adding another F-minus to year after year of disappointing grades, the Texans came alive.
Don’t ask why. Don’t ask how. They don’t even know.
During a pregame ceremony, Hakeem Olajuwon was the Homefield Advantage Captain, and by game’s end, it felt like Clutch City.
The Dream had nothing to do with it, but there were a host of players involved in what turned into the greatest comeback in Texans playoff history, an epic 22-19 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills.
For the fourth time, and second time under Bill O’Brien, the Texans advance to the divisional round. They will travel to Kansas City next Sunday.
Where do we start?
Romeo Crennel’s defense allowed a game-opening touchdown drive, then didn’t let Buffalo find the end zone again, holding the Bills to four field goals the rest of the way.
Deshaun Watson and the Texans’ offense didn’t score until there was just over a minute remaining in the third quarter, but they scored on three straight possessions, with consecutive two-point conversions, to surge into the lead.
When Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked a 28-yard field goal in the extra period, Houston became the first team to come back from a 16-point playoff hole in 12 years.
After being pushed around by the Colts in last year’s playoffs — surrendering an Indianapolis team-record 200 yards on the ground — the Texans got off to a push-me-around start Saturday, allowing the Bills to quickly go 75 yards to take a 7-0 lead.
By the half, Buffalo was up 13-0, marking the third time an O’Brien team failed to score in the first half of a home playoff game.
Midway through the third, the Bills took a 16-0 lead, and the train to another Texans embarrassment was boarding.
Suddenly, however, the resiliency the Texans have displayed multiple times this season began to show.
O’Brien said words cannot describe the intangibles that make up his team.
“There was some tough sledding there for a long time, and I think (the comeback) shows you the heart of this team,” he said. “There is a lot of character in that room.”
With so many contributors to the huge win, it is difficult to rate the most important play in the game’s outcome.
Was it a sack by J.J. Watt, who forced the Bills to settle for a field goal that kept it a twoscore game, all the while worrying that his surgically repaired pectoral muscle was going to be reinjured?
Was it when Watson — who led the Texans in rushing, basically calling his own number on multiple occasions — dragged Bills defenders into the end zone for the Texans’ first points?
Was it when Watson — who completed 20 of 25 passes for 247 yards — outran Bills to the corner for a two-point conversion?
Was it a fumble forced by Whitney Mercilus while he attacked Bills quarterback Josh Allen in the fourth quarter?
Was it DeAndre Hopkins’ first deep pass reception of the game, on which he beat one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks in the fourth quarter?
Was it when Mercilus and Watt met Allen in the backfield to force a crucial incompletion?
Was it when Carlos Hyde, who on the play after a fumble that could have lost the game, caught a pass from Watson to give the Texans their first lead?
Was it Jacob Martin’s huge fourth-down sack to snuff out one Bills possession?
Was it when Duke Johnson grabbed a Watson pass on thirdand-18 in overtime and scooted to a dive for the necessary yardage for a first down on the final drive?
Was it when Taiwan Jones, who didn’t play an offensive snap until the final game of the regular season, grabbed his second catch of the year, a beautiful 34-yard sprint after a grand Watson sack escape?
Or was it the aforementioned Watson getaway, on which he was banged by two Bills before spinning to find Jones in the flat?
It was all of them and more. “The game is never over,” Watson said. “Anything can happen.”
This was the epitome of a team win. Save maybe for punter Bryan Anger, the entire Texans roster played poorly early on, and they all played well late.
A pure example of the 2019 Texans. Up and down. Good and bad.
It was reasonable to have given up on the good team showing up at all.
When it did, it proved to be good enough.