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 successful 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 legit Tremendous Bowl contender.
Listed here 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 gained, they placed on a masterclass on each side of the ball.
Offensively the Texans did what they’ve finished for many of the season with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud. They made large performs, they ran the ball properly once they wanted to, they protected the soccer and so they put up large 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 prime 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 large 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 considered top-of-the-line models within the NFL this season, however they fully no-showed within the largest sport of the season.
Garrett was a non-factor and largely invisible, they allowed large performs all day and have been gashed for greater than 360 whole 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 grew to become a blowout.
As sturdy as their status was coming into this sport, there have been plenty of purple flags that possibly ought to have been paid consideration to extra. The primary is that whereas they have been first in yards in opposition to, they have been solely thirteenth within the NFL when it comes to permitting factors.
Additionally they had the NFL’s worst purple 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 an even bigger concern
Flacco was an excellent story and bailed the Browns offense out once 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 an enormous contributor to that with eight interceptions in his 5 begins, throwing not less than one in each sport 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 sport and switch it right into a 38-14 rout within the blink of a watch.
The Browns have been lucky to beat their turnover points through the common season. These points performed an enormous position in them getting crushed within the playoffs.
