Houston Texans safety Justin Reid produced four combined tackles in the team’s 13-12 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at NRG Stadium. On the stat sheet, it was hardly a player-of-the-week type of performance, but the second-year safety was saving the best for last.
On the Jaguars’ two-point conversion attempt with 30 seconds left in the game, Reid knocked back Jacksonville running back Leonard Fournette, who was on target to cross the goal line on second effort. The tackle protected the Texans’ one-point lead and pushed them to a 1-1 start for the first time since 2017.
Reid’s effort was enough to earn him a defensive player of the week nod from NBC Sports’ Peter King in his latest “Football Morning in America” column.
Justin Reid, safety, Houston. When Leonard Fournette came charging up the middle with the result of the Jags-Texans game in his hands, it was clear that Jacksonville—down 13-12, choosing to try a two-point conversion to win the game with 30 seconds left instead of playing it safe and playing for overtime—felt its best option was brute strength up the gut with its 228-pound physical back. So here came Reid, the second line of defense, to meet Fournette at about the half-yard line, and to prevent Fournette from stretching his arm with the football to break the plane of the goal line. Reid, all 203 pounds of him, did his job with his own brute strength, stopping Fournette and the football maybe 12 or so inches from the goal line. Houston 13, Jacksonville 12. “The D-line did a great job pushing the pile, opening it up to where basically it was just me and him,” Reid said. “Just had to bow up and make a play.”
The tackle was a key play to give Houston its first win of the season and a share of the AFC South as the Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans 19-17 Sunday. With all three teams at 1-1, the Texans are beginning to get in the thick of things, as opposed to sitting at the bottom of the division at 0-2 like Jacksonville.
