The Houston Texans continued their unbelievable season on Saturday with a 45-14 domination of the Cleveland Browns, sending them to the Divisional Spherical of the AFC playoffs.
After profitable simply 11 video games over the earlier three seasons (mixed), the Texans emerged out of nowhere to win the AFC South and appear to be a reliable Tremendous Bowl contender.
Listed below are three takeaways from their Saturday win.
1. The Texans look legit
Who might have ever presumably imagined this within the preseason? The Texans not solely received, they placed on a masterclass on either side of the ball.
Offensively the Texans did what they’ve accomplished for a lot of the season with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud. They made massive performs, they ran the ball properly after they wanted to, they protected the soccer they usually put up massive numbers everywhere in the subject.
Stroud averaged 12.7 yards per try, threw three touchdowns and accomplished 76 p.c of his passes in opposition to one of many NFL’s high move defenses.
However for nearly as good because the offense was, the protection was simply as dominant. They hit Browns quarterback Joe Flacco all day, scored two touchdowns on back-to-back pick-sixes within the third quarter and their different top-five choose (Will Anderson Jr.) outshined Cleveland’s Myles Garrett coming off the sting.
The AFC is huge open this season and the Texans look to have nearly as good of an opportunity as anyone to return out of it.
2. The Browns protection actually underwhelmed
The Browns protection has been thought to be among the best items within the NFL this season, however they utterly no-showed within the largest recreation of the season.
Garrett was a non-factor and largely invisible, they allowed massive performs all day and had been gashed for greater than 360 complete yards. It might have been extra had the Texans not taken their foot off the fuel within the fourth quarter and benched Stroud when the got here turned a blowout.
As sturdy as their status was coming into this recreation, there have been quite a lot of crimson flags that perhaps ought to have been paid consideration to extra. The primary is that whereas they had been first in yards in opposition to, they had been solely thirteenth within the NFL when it comes to permitting factors.
In addition they had the NFL’s worst crimson zone protection and had allowed 28 factors or extra in six totally different video games. That features 4 video games the place they allowed greater than 30 factors.
They appeared like extra hype than substance.
3. Joe Flacco’s turnovers ought to have been a much bigger concern
Flacco was a terrific story and bailed the Browns offense out after they wanted it. However he additionally had issues defending the soccer. The Browns offense turned the soccer over greater than anyone this season, and Flacco was a giant contributor to that with eight interceptions in his 5 begins, throwing at the least one in each recreation he performed.
Turnovers ended up taking part in an enormous position on Saturday as he threw back-to-back pick-sixes within the third quarter to take a 24-14 recreation and switch it right into a 38-14 rout within the blink of a watch.
The Browns had been lucky to beat their turnover points throughout the common season. These points performed a giant position in them getting crushed within the playoffs.
