Today's game featuring Houston at Washington is one that I'm quite sure will make NFL Replay on Tuesday. Featuring a lot of offense from both Quarterbacks, Houston scored 20 points in the 2nd half and overtime to beat Washington 30-27 in their first-ever overtime win.
At the outset it didn't seem as things were going to go well for Houston on this day. After letting Washington score 3 on their opening drive, Steve Slaton took the kickoff in the endzone but stepped out onto the field before going out of bounds at the Houston 1 yard line. And to top things off, QB Matt Schaub threw an interception to Carlos Rogers on Houston's 1st drive of the game. Houston quickly found itself down by 6 as Washington scored on another field goal in the 1st quarter. Houston went ahead 7-6 at the beginning of the 2nd quarter, but then Washington began to turn up the heat on their passing game. Washington scored their 1st touchdown on a run from RB Clinton Portis after a big 62-yard pass to Joey Galloway. Washington would go on to score 1 more touchdown to end the half up 20-7.
Houston didn't go down, however, and came back swinging. After a Houston field goal and another Washington touchdown, Houston closed out the 3rd quarter with a 6 yard touchdown pass to WR Kevin Walter to edge closer to Washington. In the 4th quarter, on a 4th and 10 play, Matt Schaub threw a 24 yard touchdown pass to WR Andre Johnson (who had just returned to the game from an ankle injury) to tie the score at 27.
Houston won the overtime toss and was able to bring the ball to the Washington 30 yard line for a 47 yard field goal attempt. As K Neil Rackers missed one from that same distance earlier in the game, Coach Gary Kubiak elected to punt the ball. Washington then took the ball down the field and attempted a 52-yard field goal. After missing on the attempt, Houston drove the ball to the Washington 17 yard line and won the game on a 34 yard field goal from Rackers.
Houston had a great day on run defense but not such a good day on pass defense. QB Don McNabb went 28 for 38 for 426 yards and 1 touchdown. Most of the big plays came in the first half of the game before the Houston defense began to clamp down a little bit and get more pressure on McNabb. DT Mario Williams had a big day on the front line, finishing with 3 tackles, 1 assist on a tackle, and 3 sacks on McNabb. The defense held Washington's running game to only 18 yards on 17 attempts. The pass defense gave up 239 yards in the 1st half but started to clamp down a little bit in the 2nd, getting better pressure and 2 sacks on McNabb.
Houston ran the ball effectively when they did run it. RB Adrian Foster ran the ball 19 times for 69 yards while Slaton went 3 for 14 yards. Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter both finished over 100 yards receiving. Matt Schaub threw a career day today going 38 for 51 for 497 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
Click here for a full box score from Fox Sports.
All in all, it was a game where Houston showed that they could come back and win a big football game on the road.
Now we head into Week 3, where we will host Dallas. The 1 thing that concerns me at this point is the secondary. Tony Romo had a good day passing the ball, going 34 of 51 for 374 yards and 1 TD. The Dallas offense, even in the losing effort, started to show signs of finding their rhythm. If this continues, it could be another up and down game for Houston.
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