The same situation transpired the following week when the Texans took on their in-state rival Dallas Cowboys in Sunday Night Football. Dallas coach Jason Garrett, when touched with a 4th & 1 scenario on the Texans’ 42-yard line in overtime, decided to punt it away, giving young upstart DeShaun Watson the chance to seal the game in setting up another game-winning field goal, to which he did. Contrasting from Reich, Garrett played it safe–very safe–and that costed him dearly. As a Texans’ fan—well, what more can I say than thank you, Mr. Garrett.
Against Buffalo, the team played against a fierce defense that is quite like theirs. But on the other side of the ball, the Bills’ offense was an anomaly as you wouldn’t know what version of them was going to come out to take the field. One day you might see the team that took out the Vikings and the next you might see get being blown out by 40 to the Ravens. Well, when you take into account the kind of players they have conducting said offense, it therefore makes sense.
It was an ugly game as the two teams exhibited their power in the form of their defense, but the Bills took it to Houston the most as they racked up seven sacks, two interceptions, and a load of quarterback hits on Watson. The Texans returned the favor but it didn’t compared to the havoc their adversaries inflicted on them. But most notably was the fact that the Texans were nearly defeated by Josh Allen, the Bills’ first-round draft selection from the University of Wyoming. However, late in the game, when Allen had to leave the game by injury, Nathan Peterman stepped into the field to try to lead Buffalo to victory. Notorious for his tendency to throw interceptions, Peterman played the inverse of what was expected of him by throwing for 5 completions out of 8 attempts and a touchdown pass. Everything finally looked good for him….until he found out he was Nathan Peterman. He is not a man who can have all the good things. From there, Peterman proceeded to do Peterman things by throwing two quick interceptions and give the Texans another win for the season.
For Jacksonville and Miami, the Texans handled them exceedingly well through every facet of the game. The offense fired on all cylinders, the defense contributed with their daunted frontline, and the special teams made sure no return from the opposing team would deal considerable damage on the “Bulls On Parade”. For reference, In the game against the Dolphins, Watson had his coming out party as he threw for 5 touchdowns which made him become the player with the second-most TD passes thrown in his first 15 career starts (32). What was thought of Watson by many pundits as being a highly-feared dual-threat quarterback prior to the start of the season is finally being realized as the season progresses.
As momentum continued to build through their winning streak, Houston faced Alex Smith and his Redskins team in Washington. There were plenty of close calls at the start of the game, the most evident being Justin Reid’s 100+ yard pick-six return. All in all, it looked to be a back-and-forth type of matchup until an unfortunate injury sidelined the 34-year old indefinitely, thus rendering him out for the season. The weirdness out of this though is how the play was eerily similar to Joe Theismann’s injury 33 years ago. It broke the same leg while in the same quarter and on the same day. The aforementioned legendary Washington QB even commented on his Twitter account about the injury as he saw it live in the stadium.
Alex’s leg is exactly like mine 33 yrs ago
— Joe Theismann (@Theismann7) November 18, 2018
Despite the gruesome play, backup quarterback Colt McCoy replaced Smith to try to win it for Washington, and they nearly pulled it off as they took the lead early in the 4th quarter (21-20). However, Watson once again led his team to victory as he managed another game-winning drive which culminated in a 54-yard Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal. Nonetheless, while Houston was holding on to the scoreline, the Redskins knocked on the door to steal the lead at the very end of the game. Fortunately, once again due to poor clock management, the Redskins tried a 63-yard field goal to steal it despite having 8 seconds to spare to cover a little more ground for their kicker to have a viable try. But nope. They came up with nothing. The Texans’ resilience once again showed as they won another close game.
