Anleitungen » The Houston Texans waited 10 months to celebrate a victory

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —.So when Sunday’s wild game ended https://www.texansfanshop.com/hats , they let it all out.Players mobbed kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn after he made a 37-yard field goal in overtime, jumping up and down before leaving Indianapolis with a wild 37-34 victory to end the league’s longest losing streak at nine.“We’re all happy about it, no doubt,” linebacker Whitney Mercilus said. “We finally got a ‘W’ after being 0-3 for a while. So, I think things are starting to click. Starting to play some complementary football. And so, that’s where this momentum is.”It’s wasn’t just three games.Houston (1-3) hadn’t won since Nov. 19, hadn’t won on the road since Sept. 14, 2017, and couldn’t even beat the Colts last season without Andrew Luck.This season, the frustration grew as they lost at New England by seven, at Tennessee by three and at home to the New York Giants by five. Then Sunday, they blew a 28-7 lead to Luck’s Colts and two more chances to win — on Fairbairn’s 59-yard field goal on the second-to-last play and on their first possession of overtime when a strong drive stalled and Fairbairn made a 29-yard field goal to tie the score at 31 with 1:50 to play.And just when it appeared Houston’s winless streak might continue, the Colts went for the win on fourth-and-4 from their 43-yard line. The Texans got the stop they needed and three plays later, Fairbairn made the winning kick — after Indy called timeout just before he missed the kick wide right.“It took longer than it needed to,” defensive end J.J. Watt said after recording two more sacks to give him 80 in his career. “Very, very tiring Houston Texans Hoodie , but we found a way. It’s a wild game, there at the end and there was a whole lot going on. Man, I respect their decision to go for it there at the end, go for the win instead of the tie.”Indy (1-3) has lost two straight and all three losses came with the Colts having chances to take the lead in the final 2 minutes.They’ve just kept coming up short.“We’ve got to execute. I’ve got to play better,” Luck said. “I’ve got to throw a better ball. We all know where we have to improve.”IN SYNCDeshaun Watson and his receivers certainly were in sync Sunday.Watson was 29 of 42 with 375 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran six times for 41 yards and his first rushing TD of the season.Hopkins caught 10 passes for 169 yards and one score while Keke Coutee broke Andre Johnson’s franchise record for receptions in an NFL debut. Coutee caught 11 passes for 109 yards. Johnson caught six passes in his first game.SHORT-TERM PROBLEMThe Colts initially lined up for their fourth-down play to try and draw Houston offside. When they didn’t, Indy called timeout and coach Frank Reich made the decision to go for the first down and the win with a short, seemingly safe pass on fourth-and-4.But Luck was missing his favorite target, T.Y. Hilton, who was out with a hamstring injury, and his pass was too low for Chester Rogers.The bigger problem is that Indy now visits New England on Thursday, presumably without Hilton.“Probably not, probably not good, I mean with the hamstring on a short week,” Reich said.DEFNSIVE TURNAROUNDHouston’s trademark defense also appears to have been rejuvenated. The Texans finished with four sacks against Luck and forced him to fumble twice, recovering one. Jadeveon Clowney scored his second career touchdown by recovering a fumble in the end zone on a botched snap from center Ryan Kelly.Indy had only 107 yards in the first half Jordan Thomas Color Rush Jersey , 40 coming on Hilton’s first catch.While Luck led the Colts back from a 28-7 deficit to force overtime and Indy took a 34-31 lead on Adam Vinatieri’s 44-yard field goal, the defense stiffened one last time when Houston needed it most.MILESTONE DAY Vinatieri became the NFL’s career leader in field goals when he made a 42-yarder with 2 seconds left in the first half to make it 21-10. Hall of Famer Morten Andersen held the previous mark at 565.Vinatieri extended the record to 567 with his overtime field goal and now heads back to New England, where he started his career, needing one field-goal attempt to move past Gary Anderson for No. 2 all-time. He also needs 26 points to break Morten Andersen’s career scoring record (2,544).But he would have preferred extending his league record for victories (226).“It’s weird, you know, you come off a loss and it doesn’t feel quite the same way,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll look back at in years to come and it will be pretty special.” HOUSTON (AP) — When the Houston Texans take the field on Monday night against the Tennessee Titans in their first game since Robert “Bob” McNair died on Friday they’ll all carry a reminder of the team’s late owner and founder.Affixed to the back of each player’s helmet as they try to set a franchise record with their eighth straight win will be a small decal in the shape of a football with simple white block letters bearing his initials of “RCM.”One of the NFL’s most influential owners, McNair had battled both leukemia and squamous cell carcinoma in recent years before dying in Houston on Friday. He was 81. The team did not release a cause of death, but said he died peacefully with wife Janice and his family by his side.While McNair hadn’t been around the team much this season as his health declined, he’d been a near constant presence in years past. He was often seen sitting on a golf cart watching his team practice or standing on the field before games.On Saturday before the Texans started practice, coach Bill O’Brien discussed McNair’s fight with cancer and his passing with the team.“He loved the Houston Texans and he loved coming out here to practice and he loved … the veterans will tell you, the guys that have been here a long time, sitting in his cart with (son) Cal (McNair) watching practice, driving around to the different drills,” O’Brien said on a video provided by the team.“And I just think on a day like this before we hit the field — this is his field — (we’ll) have a little moment of silence and then we break and we’ll go to practice. Because at the end of the day Corey Moore Color Rush Jersey , guys, Bob McNair wanted us to win.”After games McNair, who dressed impeccably in a suit to watch the team play, would often emerge from the locker room to address the assembled media, beaming and raving about the Texans after big wins or lamenting that they had to do better after tough losses.This team wasn’t merely a business to McNair, he cared deeply about the Texans and talked often about his desire to bring Houston its first Super Bowl title.The Houston Oilers never won one before skipping town for Tennessee after the 1996 season. It was then that McNair made it his mission to return the NFL to the city. He formed Houston NFL Holdings in 1998, and on Oct. 6, 1999, he was awarded the 32nd NFL franchise. The Texans began play in 2002.And whether near or afar McNair had been a presence in all 266 games the Texans had played since their inaugural game on Sept. 8, 2002, when they beat the Cowboys 19-10.Quarterback David Carr, whom the Texans chose with their first draft pick and who led them to that win, recounted McNair’s kindness and knows better than most just how desperately he wanted to win a Super Bowl.“That was really the only regret after I left Houston was that I wasn’t able to bring a championship home for him and Janice because they definitely deserved it just because of what all they did to bring football back to Houston,” Carr said on NFL Network.Now the Texans will continue that quest without McNair, under the guidance of Cal McNair, who has been serving as the team’s chairman and chief operating officer and will take over in the wake of his father’s death.The last full season McNair would see was a disappointing one Seantrel Henderson Color Rush Jersey , with the Texans finishing 4-12 in a year where J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson both sustained season-ending injuries.Early on it looked as if this would be another lost season for the Texans after they dropped their first three games.But instead of crumbling after that terrible start, Houston has bounced back to become the first team since the 1925 New York Giants to win seven straight after opening a season 0-3.Their next challenge will be facing a Tennessee team that is expected to get quarterback Marcus Mariota back after he missed the second half of the Titans’ 38-10 loss to Indianapolis after suffering a stinger.The AFC South-leading Texans lost to the Titans 20-17 in Week 2 in a game that Mariota missed because of an elbow injury.Titans coach Mike Vrabel, who worked as an assistant in Houston for the past four years, thinks that his team is better than it was in that game, but knows that the Texans have improved, too.“Other than last week, we probably were playing better defense than the first time, but you never know,” he said.“The great thing about this league is you have to prove it every week. Every day that you come to work, as a player in this league and as a coach in this league, you have to prove your value to the team. We have to get to work and be able to practice and prepare against a good football team.”