Houston Texans outlast Manning and the Broncos

Houston Texans RB Arian Foster on his 9 yard TD reception.

After winning there first 2 games of the regular season by 20 points the Houston Texans had it’s first real test of the season having to go to Denver and play Peyton Manning and the Broncos on the road in a tough game. Manning was an amazing 9-0 at home playing against the Texans in his career, and though it was in Indianapolis the Houston Texans knew coming into this game they had to play a full 60 minutes of good football to win this game.

To start the game for the Texans new retrun man Trindon Holliday fielded a kickoff and fell out of bounds at the 5 yard  line putting the offense in a tough spot. That resulted in a safety by Broncos DE Elvis Dummervil of Texans QB Matt Schaub. after punting the ball to the Broncos Manning led a drive down to net them a FG giving them a 5-0 lead.  The Texans got off to a hot start off a nice playaction and a double move by WR Andre Johnson came a 63 yard TD pass from Schaub  Johnson on the 1st pass play of the game for the Texans. The Texans took advantage of the Broncos defensive errors early and often jumping out to a 21-11 lead at halftime. To Open the 3rd they added another 10 to put them up 31-11 going into the 4th quarter.

Houston Texans WR Andre Johnson on his 63 yard TD catch.

Houston Texans QB Matt Schaub came up big in this game throwing 4 TD’s to match his career high. He was almost perfect on Sunday besides throwing a intercetption late in the game attemptimg to make a play of nothing. He finished the game with 290 yards on 17-31 passing in the game. Schaub who just signed a 4 year extension before the start of the season showed the upper management he was worth it after getting hit in the head during one play. Then being hit so hard in his head the next play it ripped off his helmet and a piece of his ear. He showed guts on Sunday in a huge win against a good team, a must win for the Texans if they want to claim homefield advantage for the playoffs. 2nd year QB TJ Yates had this to say following the game re Schaub: ”He’s one tough SOB. It’s inspiring to see.” Schaub had two passes over 5o yards in this game for touchdowns in the first half. One of those was to Andre Johnson and the other to WR Kevin Walter. RB Arian Foster also had a receiving TD and gained 105 yards on the ground off of 25 carries as well to help the cause.

Anyone who’s watched Manning vs Texans games knows that there’s never enough points when playing against Peyton. He’s had so many comebacks wins against them that even if it was 41-11 I’d say it wasn’t out of reach. Now knowing that you shouldn’t be surprised that he did make a game out of this one too. In the 4th quarter the Broncos put up 14 points bringing it down to a last posession, but the defense played a great game on Sunday. Most would say the 2nd half was not as good as the 1st but they were on the field more in the 2nd half with the Texans offense really just trying to protect the lead they had by running the ball and not going deep. Manning rarely had a clean pocket to throw from all game. DE JJ Watt saw to that all day long. He had 6 tackles and 2.5 sacks on Manning in the game. Watt who said: “I want to sack him… I want to have #18 on my sack list” got his wish. Wade Phillips moved him all over the line and it worked he was in on almost every play that was stopped at the line of scrimmage. Though Manning was able to throw for 330 yards as a team the Broncos only had 375 yads of total offense.

Texans DE JJ Watt getting a sack on Peyton Manning.