The Houston Texans, in their Monday night matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, continued the trend of nail-biting, down-to-the-wire AFC South games we saw begin on Sunday, with the Colts winning on a last-second field goal and the Jaguars losing by allowing a last-second touchdown.
Unfortunately for the Texans, they are now grouped into the same category as the Jaguars as they effectively fell apart in the final minutes of the game and allowed quarterback Baker Mayfield to lead a touchdown drive to win the game. The Texans lost 20-19 and are now 0-2 to begin the 2025 season.
It was a game the Texans believe they could have won – and really, they should have. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, they stuttered and stalled throughout the rest of the game.
Costly defensive penalties, a failed goal line drive and inconsistency across the board held the Texans back. But they still had a chance to pull out a win in the final few minutes – until they didn't.
After making a field goal to narrow the Bucs' lead to 14-13 with just over five minutes remaining, the Texans defense forced a three-and-out to put the ball quickly back in C.J. Stroud's hands. After a 53-yard punt return, it took just two plays to reach the end zone and take the lead.
But Stroud was sacked on the attempted two-point conversion, making it just a five-point game, and Mayfield engineered an impressive final drive – which included a 15-yard scramble on 4th-and-10 from the quarterback himself.
"The run game was definitely not good enough," head coach DeMeco Ryans said. "It starts up front with our [defensive] tackles. It wasn't good enough. We didn't play our technique the proper way. We didn't tackle well today."
The Texans allowed the Buccaneers to record 169 rushing yards and 215 passing yards in the loss; Stroud was 13-of-24 for 207 yards and a touchdown, but the run game was limited to just 64 rushing yards on 19 attempts. There was pressure on both quarterbacks on just about every play, as the Texans' offensive line continued to struggle, and Stroud was sacked three times.
"We had communication issues up front," Ryans said. "They got us on some blitzes, things that we've seen, we work on. We have to look at the film to see what those issues were. We got to, of course, not have those and make sure we're picking things up the right way."
The inconsistency in offensive production wasn't just limited to the offensive line, either. Running back Nick Chubb had 12 carries for just 43 yards, wide receiver Nico Collins had three receptions on nine targets and the offense was forced to punt four times as they struggled to even make it into the red zone.
"We didn't make the plays we needed to make, and that's the summation of this game," Ryans said.
"You can make a bunch of excuses, but we're just not getting it done," Stroud said. "And at the end of the day, that's all that matters."
The Texans will next play division opponents in back-to-back weeks, facing the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 3 and the Tennessee Titans in Week 4. The Texans and Colts will not meet until Week 13.
