TAMPA, Fla. — This won’t be good enough to beat a good team.
It was barely good enough to beat a Tampa Bay squad that had Santa Claus playing quarterback.
But on days a team clinches a division title, the grumbling can’t outweigh the accomplishment.
The Texans tried their darnedest to throw away what could have been a romp with conservative play-calling, and enough defensive mistakes to almost match the Bucs, but in the end, they pulled out a 23-20 victory to claim the AFC South for the second straight year and fourth time in five seasons.
No playoff team is quarterbacked by Jameis Winston, so not many playoff teams are going to turn the ball over four times in the first 18 minutes or throw four interceptions total.
But the Texans gladly accepted those gifts and will wear their AFC South championship shirts and caps with pride.
Give the Bucs some credit, their defense did bring it in the first half, but it seems as if the Texans were content to let Winston give them the game instead of trying to take it away.
Houston lined up for 11 first-down snaps in the first half, and ran the ball on nine of them.
Worse yet, these running plays were hardly successful. Tailbacks Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson combined to rush for only 24 yards on 12 carries.
The Texans were being play-called into a tight game.
That conservative approach backfired when Winston finally warmed up and started to exploit the Texans’ secondary, which dropped as many potential interceptions as they grabbed. He led two touchdowns drives during the last two minutes of the first half.
The second half was a mishmash of mess, with curious calls, horrible decisions, and a scary stretch where it appeared Deshaun Watson might be injured.
Watson hung tough, though he didn’t have a great day. The Texans defense was at times terrible, then brilliant, such as the final possession when Whitney Mercilus sacked Winston and Jahleel Addae stepped in front of a receiver to grab the game-clinching interception.
A win is a win, and always better than a loss.
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December 22, 2019 at 04:42AM
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Solomon: A win, but Texans make it too close for comfort - Houston Chronicle
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