Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud made one thing out of nothing to spark Houston’s 99-yard go-ahead landing drive in opposition to the Chargers within the first recreation of Tremendous Wild Card Weekend.
Dealing with a third-and-16 from Houston’s 17-yard line, Stroud didn’t deal with Texans middle Jarrett Patterson’s excessive snap, which went over his proper shoulder. Stroud was the primary participant to the free ball, and as a substitute of falling on it for a giant loss, he calmly scooped it, rolled to his proper and delivered a deep strike from inside his 10-yard line large receiver Xavier Hutchinson for a 39-yard acquire.
5 performs later, Houston scored a landing to show a six-point deficit right into a 7-6 lead.
Stroud’s improvised play utterly altered the sport’s outlook. As much as that time, the Chargers had dominated (apart from on the scoreboard). Throughout Houston’s first 5 drives, it gained 54 yards and turned the ball over twice.
Following Stroud’s outstanding play, the Texans gained 94 yards on 10 performs, together with a five-play, 45-yard drive to arrange kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 41-yard subject purpose with three seconds left within the half that gave Houston a 10-6 halftime lead.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans spoke with CBS Sports activities’ Evan Washburn coming into halftime, and he had a easy clarification for what sparked the group’s first-half turnaround.
“C.J. Stroud modified,” Ryans stated, including that the second-year quarterback “put the group on his again.”
Stroud completed the primary half 14-of-23 for 180 yards, one landing and one interception.
Stroud, the Related Press 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Yr, had an underwhelming 2024 common season. He threw for fewer yards and extra interceptions, and he had a worse completion share than he did as a rookie.
The model of Stroud we noticed on the finish of the primary half is the one we thought we might see all season. He picked one heck of a time to reach.
