The Houston Texans fell down 21-0 to the Tennessee Titans in the final regular season game of 2021.
The Texans were 30 minutes away from their dismal season being over, and taking a 4-13 record into the interminable yet hopeful offseason. It would have surprised very few if the Texans’ trend of uninspired play continued and they got shutout en route to the Titans’ securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Instead, the Texans rallied and outscored the Titans 25-7 in the second half to make Tennessee sweat, as a loss would ensure the Kansas City Chiefs would have home-field advantage throughout the postseason instead.
Coach David Culley joined Texans Radio play-by-play Marc Vandermeer and sideline reporter John Harris Monday and downplayed his involvement in the team’s near comeback.
“We went into that game saying we wanted to end this thing the right way,” Culley said. “Obviously in the first half it wasn’t going the right way for us. Obviously when we went into halftime — and I want everybody to know this — I really had nothing to do with that change in the second half. Because I said very little when I went in there. I didn’t know what to say. All I say was that’s not how we wanted to start this first half. Let’s end the second half. We got 30 minutes left. Let’s end it the right way.”
According to Culley, the right way was to conclude with a victory, which Houston was unable to pull off as the Titans prevailed 28-25. Nevertheless the AFC South champions had to earn that top seed in the final game; it wasn’t given to them on a deep steel platter.
“I felt like they went out there and did everything possibly offensively, defensively, and special teams to give us a chance to win the ball,” said Culley.
Houston finished 4-13. Culley’s fate is still in the air as to whether he will stay on board as the Texans’ coach in 2022.
