What Lamar Miller's 97-yard TD, Demaryius Thomas’ breakout game mean for surging Texans
What Lamar Miller's 97-yard TD, Demaryius Thomas’ breakout game mean for surging Texans
HOUSTON — Titans tight end Jonnu Smith had just slipped out of a chip block, Marcus Mariota finding his streaking target four yards up the middle, and open field ahead.
Smith secured his grip on the dart from Mariota, racing 57 more yards until he found himself dragging Houston safety Tyran Mathieu into the end zone.
Titans 10, Texans 0.
Demaryius Thomas glanced at his teammates on the sideline. The receiver whom Denver traded to Houston on Oct. 30 marveled.
“Everyone was calm,” Thomas said after Houston’s 38-17 win. “Nobody pointed fingers. We just knew what we had to do to make it better.”
That penchant for accountability over blame has caught Thomas’ eyes the last four weeks. Teammates step up. They adjust smoothly, “stay cool and do their job,” he said.
The list of Texans who did their job Monday night stretches long.
Thomas’ name was among the top.
He was the first to put Houston on the board, in the first quarter of his first home game, with his first career touchdown as a Texan. He found the end zone again in the fourth quarter, breaking quickly on another out route to the right sideline. In between, running back Lamar Miller rushed for the longest score in Texans history (97 yards) and the longest in the league since 2014 when, again, Miller pulled off the feat.
Don’t count receiver DeAndre Hopkins surprised.
“Demaryius coming in and having two touchdowns in his home opener was great,” said Hopkins, who caught five catches for a game-high 74 receiving yards. “We expect that out of him.
“Lamar, he'd been due for a big game like that. All he needed was a little crease to break away.”
Miller’s found that crease from the Texans’ own 3-yard line, where Houston’s shutdown defense halted Tennessee’s fourth-and-1 end-zone attempt to force a turnover on downs. Suddenly, a ball so close to Tennessee’s end zone was gone, a 14-point swing differential.
Linebackers Benardrick McKinney and Zach Cunningham stuffed tight end Luke Stocker on the momentum-shifting, fourth-down attempt. The play was an illustration of how well the Texans won both lines of scrimmage in a night of complementary football.
Somehow, Mariota was just over a minute away from a game with a perfect 158.0 passer rating, two touchdowns and neither an interception nor a single incompletion. He threw his 20th attempt, and first incompletion, with 1:06 to play in the game. But his longstanding perfect stat line didn’t bely the sick sacks Houston found him on for a total loss of 43 yards. Christian Covington led defenders with 2.5 sacks, linebacker Whitney Mercilus and defensive end J.J. Watt each claiming another 1.5. Watt also stripped Mariota on one sack.
Watt’s younger brothers, Chargers fullback Derek and Steelers linebacker T.J., celebrated on Twitter.
They also spammed J.J. with 148 text messages. (“Everything from excitement for me to talking [expletive],” Watt explained. “What you’d imagine three brothers all playing in the NFL would be like.”)
Inside the locker room, the NFL’s first team to win eight straight after opening a season 0-3 juggled emotions. They transitioned from the grief of losing owner Bob McNair to cancer Friday, to the pride of winning a game in his memory. Head coach Bill O’Brien gave the game ball to son and successor Cal McNair in Bob’s memory. Minutes later, the Texans locker room was still dedicating the win to the man who brought pro football back to Houston but they were also exchanging jibes and laughter, deodorant requests and flashy postgame suit jackets.
They had reason to celebrate. Watson’s extra sessions to integrate Thomas into the offense, the two huddling at Watson’s home, appears to have effectively cemented red-zone chemistry. Watt and Covington’s long recoveries from season-ending 2017 injuries seemed distant memories in the rush of their five combined quarterback hits. Miller exploded for a season-high 162 yards and a score after two games without triple digits or an end zone trip.
The Texans extended their lead atop the NFC South themselves to a full two games. The Titans are in third place, a game behind 6-5 Indianapolis.
But “can’t look ahead even though we see the picture shaping out,” Mercilus said. “You’ve just got to have guys with juice. You can’t just dip your toe in. Got to go in and hit somebody in the mouth from the get-go then step on the gas pedal all the way.”
Head coach Bill O’Brien preached the same amid the longest win streak in franchise history.
“It’s a funny thing,” he said. “In the end, like what we have done. We’ve done a really good job. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to downplay. We know we’ve won some tough games and beat some tough teams.
“But we haven’t really done anything yet.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.
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