The Houston Texans rallied from 10 points down to beat the Los Angeles Chargers 27-20 Sunday afternoon at Rokit Field at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The quality of the win demonstrated the grit the offense and quarterback Deshaun Watson to score 20 unanswered points and establish a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, but it also revealed the character of the defense to keep the lead and stop the Chargers dead in their tracks on their final drive.
As Los Angeles was driving deeper into Houston territory with 46 seconds remaining, the Texans defense held forth. After an optimistic new set of downs at the Texans’ 30-yard line, the defense gave up six yards before an offensive holding call pushed the Chargers back to the Texans’ 34. On third-and-14 and fourth-and-14, Houston turned up two big incomplete passes to seal the victory.
“It says a lot about the grit [of the defense],” Reid told reporters Monday at NRG Stadium.
Like Watson, the defense was taking a cue from the Pro Bowl field general and giving maximum effort for the entire game. It was the second straight week the defense stopped the opposing offense’s comeback to deliver the ball back to Watson for a final kneel-down.
“Like D4 (Deshaun Watson) said earlier, this team knows how to play 60 minutes,” said Reid, who had seven combined tackles. “We play full games and it’s going to come down to the wire. That’s the way the NFL is. We just showed our tenacity and our toughness to be able to pull it out at the end.”
Watson has demonstrated the penchant for comebacks and late game heroics since entering the NFL as a first-round pick in 2017. If the former Clemson Tiger can have a defense with a similar knack, then the Texans could pile up a few more wins that could help in playoff scenarios when December arrives.
