The first five Texans possessions of Saturday’s game against the Chargers ended with two turnovers and three punts, but the team remained in the game thanks to the work of their defense.
After field goals on their first two possessions, the Chargers failed to sustain any drives for the rest of the first half and that gave the offense time to find its footing. They did that well enough to go into halftime with a 10-6 lead and then they totally broke the game open in the second half. Eric Murray’s interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter gave the Chargers a two-score lead and the Texans would finish the 32-12 win with four interceptions and four sacks of Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.
The 2002 Buccaneers were the last team to match four picks and four sacks with a pick-six in a playoff game and Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said the performance was everything the Texans want to be as a defense.
“Our defense, they dominated today,” Ryans said. “That’s who we want to be. They played our brand of football. Talk about stopping the run first. That’s what I’m most proud of is how we stop the run. And when we stop the run, you make a team one-dimensional, and that’s when our D-line just causes havoc.”
The Texans will be on the road to face the Chiefs or Ravens next weekend and they’ll need the same kind of havoc in either location if they’re going to extend this run to the AFC Championship Game.
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