- 9 minutes ago
Ka'imi Fairbairn drills a 49-yard field goal as time expires to lift the Houston Texans over the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-31 in a London thriller! Sean Pendergast and Clint Stoerner break down the wild finish and what this back-to-back turnaround means for Houston's season.
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00:00For a 49-yard field goal drive from inside for the pass for Ta'emi Fairbairn.
00:05Here's the spot. Here's Fairbairn's kick.
00:07It is good! And the Texans take down the Jaguars in London.
00:12What a day! 34-31. Fairbairn, as time expires, Houston wins!
00:19Back-to-back, and they are so back!
00:22The Texans and Liberty White mob each other in celebration.
00:26The job got done the hard way, but they accomplished the feat,
00:33putting 34 on the board and beating a hot Jaguar team to run their record to 2-4.
00:41There it is! Mark Vandermeer on the call.
00:43Boy, I was excited to hear that call.
00:45We were watching it on TV down the hall.
00:47I said, I can't wait to hear Vandy's call on that field goal in the last second.
00:50As the Texans beat the Jags 34-31, Clint Sterner,
00:54and much the same way last year the Texans turned their season around,
00:58I thought, with that win over the Jags in Week 10, that comeback win,
01:01this is the win that turns the season around for the Texans today in London against,
01:07ironically or maybe appropriately, against the same opponent in the Jacksonville Jaguars.
01:11Well, look, I think the route to being back is going to start through the division.
01:15Not necessarily the overall record may not be great starting 1-4,
01:19but ultimately there's a path there by winning this division,
01:22and today it goes a long way in terms of getting that role in the right direction.
01:28Indeed, indeed.
01:28All right, we'll dig into all of it here throughout the afternoon,
01:31just the very rare early afternoon Texans postgame show here on 95.7 The Fan.
01:36But let's go out to Wembley Stadium now.
01:39If you want to get in, 713-572-4610.
01:42We'll take your phone calls.
01:42But lots of heroes in today's game, and none bigger than our guest here
01:48calling in on the hotline from Wembley Stadium.
01:50Jalen Knoll, four catches, 107 yards, got into the end zone right before the half as well.
01:57Jalen, you're on with Sean and Clint.
01:58Hey, man, congrats on the win.
02:00I appreciate it.
02:02Dude, so take us inside the locker room, man.
02:05This had to feel huge for you guys.
02:07What was it like getting a win in London, your guys' first trip overseas playing over there?
02:11It feels great to make that long trip here and to come out with a win.
02:16It means a lot, and it helps with the flight back home.
02:20Jay, y'all made it tough on all these folks that like to talk about how hard it is on
02:25teams
02:25when they travel and how the time changed this, time changed that.
02:29Y'all go out there and win a game scoring 34 points.
02:32I mean, that was big.
02:33Hey, man, your touchdown grab, man, that was a great call, great setup, great scheme by Nick Cayley.
02:40Obviously, a beautiful throw by C.J. Stroud, but take us through your side of things on
02:44that little, look like a little whip and go type of route you had there.
02:48Yeah, so we pretty much had shell coverage, and I knew I would be the winner against shell
02:53coverage and ran a good route, got past my guy, and C.J. put a great ball on me, like
03:00you said, and I just finished the play.
03:02Hey, Jay, take us through just playing with C.J. this year.
03:07You've obviously, game by game, it seems like you're kind of starting to get in rhythm
03:11and you're starting to play a bigger role and get more looks, but, you know, I've been in
03:16this, I played the game for a while, I've covered the game for a while, I'm an old quarterback,
03:20so I really pay attention to C.J., obviously.
03:24In my eyes, he has been unbelievable, not just good, and really not just great, he has been
03:29unbelievable this year in terms of just dropping the ball in there, and I think he hit you on
03:34a couple of them today that were ridiculous throws.
03:37Yeah, yeah, he's been tremendous all year, and he's been a true leader for this team,
03:42a connector for this team, a competitor that guys can feed off of, and as you've seen today,
03:48he was able to command the field and make great throws, and even after he threw an interception,
03:54he was able to bounce back, get us in field goal range, and Amy made a great kick, so he's
03:59been tremendous for us this year, and he's going to continue to be that way for us, and I'm excited
04:04to see him continue to grow.
04:06Jalen Knoll joining us here on Texans Post Game. You know, Jalen, last year, when you guys turned
04:10the season around against the Jags in that win in the middle of the season in Week 10,
04:15you guys went on that winning streak, and it was a lot of games where the defense was able to
04:20kind of close things out. This year, I feel like it's been you guys going out, getting leads,
04:25you know, maybe you guys kind of picking up the defense, I guess. How does that feel for you
04:29guys, especially a game like today, a high-scoring game like this, where you guys are able to go out
04:33right at the end of the half and go get points, at the end of the game and go get
04:36points? What's
04:37that feel like for an offensive player, for you guys to be such a catalyst for some of these games
04:41this season? I mean, it feels good that the offense is able to go and make points, but it's all
04:47about complementary football. Defense makes stops when they need to make stops, and the offense scores
04:52when they need to, and special teams make plays when they need to. So I felt like the complementary
04:58football at the start of the season wasn't necessarily there, but today I feel like it
05:04showed, and offense did their job, defense did their job, and special teams did their job. So I'm
05:10proud of the team. Jay, look, I know you're the ultimate team guy, and all of you guys, all the
05:14Texans do a great job of, you know, of raising each other up kind of deal, but I do want
05:20to talk
05:20about Jay Knoll a little bit, specifically as it relates to the season, not necessarily today.
05:26Today is where we're at, and it's a beautiful thing, but more so the season. I had you picked
05:30as my X factor, man, to start the season of kind of the new face that jumps in this offense
05:34and changes it, and with the injury, I think it took you a little longer than I would have
05:39liked for today to happen, Jay Knoll, to be honest with you. I wanted this to be week one,
05:42but take us through your maturity and your development in this system and to get to where we are
05:49today. I know the injury set you back a little bit in camp, but beyond that, just kind of
05:53how you're starting to hit stride now. Yeah, I mean, as a slot in this offense, you're relied
06:00on a lot, not only in the pass game, but the run game, and you got to be able to
06:04identify
06:04coverages. You got to be able to make clutch blocks and do all those things, and I'm a guy
06:10that wants to be relied on in that way, and I feel like I've continued to grow throughout
06:14the season, and the game is slowing down, and I'm seeing what I need to see and making
06:19the plays when the ball comes my way, and I'm making good blocks when my name's called
06:23to go make the key blocks. So I feel like I'm continuing to grow, and I'm happy with
06:30where I'm at right now, but I got to keep going, keep growing, and I know there's more.
06:35Jalen Knoll joining us here on Texans Postgame. Hey, Jalen, you guys welcome a new teammate
06:39this week in that receiver room in Marvin Harrison Jr. What's that been like welcoming him
06:43to the team, and how's he acclimated himself so far? I mean, he's done a great job. Obviously,
06:48a guy come in the week before a game, be able to make key plays like he did today, just
06:53shows
06:54you the talent he is, and I'm proud of him, and he's going to be a big X factor for
06:58this
06:59offense moving forward, and yeah, just a big-time talent. I'm happy to have him on the Texans.
07:04Hey, Jay, before we let you go, did you get to watch on the iPad the 50-yard pass that
07:09CJ
07:10threw to you before the half? Did you get a chance to watch and see the hit that he took
07:14as he was getting rid of that thing? I didn't, but no surprise to me. He's a tough competitor,
07:21and he makes those throws all day long, so I'm just happy that he stuck in there,
07:27made a great throw. It was wild. How does a human arm work like that? It's unbelievable.
07:33It's unbelievable. He's different. He's different. Four catches, a buck seven, and a touchdown. Jalen
07:40Knoll had a big game today. His biggest game as a pro statistically so far. Jalen Knoll
07:45joining us here. Jalen, we appreciate the time. Man, that's going to be a hell of a flight home.
07:49Yeah, thank you, and thank you for having me. You got it. Jalen Knoll joining us here
07:53on Texans postgame here on Texans Radio. That was nice right out of the chute.
07:57One of the big performers for today. I loved the way that the Texans responded to the Jags
08:05scoring right before the half and to the Jags tying the game up at 31. That's a sign of a
08:12good
08:13offense. They went and got a touchdown at the end of the half, especially when you're getting the
08:19ball to start the second half, so you get to double up, which they did, and then to go down,
08:25especially for CJ. Man, I think that's who I'm happiest for is CJ Stroud. Finally, he has one
08:30of these games where he puts up these big numbers against a good team in a close game, and they're
08:36able to come out with the win, and the fact that he threw the interception, I did not want to
08:40see
08:40what the Monday debate shows were going to be like with him throwing that interception there if they
08:43had lost this game, because if they score right there, the game's over. Yeah, look, that would have
08:47been tough. As good as he's played this year, it absolutely should not be that way, but the reality of
08:53it is,
08:53his team was 1-4 at the time, and that could have potentially led to them being 1-5, and
08:58so that
08:59would have been a big talking point was the CJ Stroud interception. They wouldn't talk about the
09:04fact that he had played absolutely lights out and carried the team to that point. Sean, I think
09:09looking at this game, obviously it was a monster win. I had this marked as a must-win at this
09:14point
09:15at 1-4. Today was a must-win game, and they went out there and won it, so that piece
09:20is obviously the
09:21most important, but when you look at this game and how the Texans were able to win, I would say
09:25that
09:26the three biggest concerns to start the season for the Texans were precisely why and how you won
09:33this football game, right? CJ Stroud, Nick Cayley, and the run game. I know the run game wasn't some,
09:39you know, it wasn't some, you know, historically great day in the run game on the ground, but the run
09:45game today was significantly better, and it was complementary to what the headliner now is for
09:53the Houston Texans, which is CJ Stroud and a group of pass catchers that can go out and put 30
09:58points
09:58up, right? But this run game today with Jawar Jordan, you know, welcome to the show, going for
10:04over seven yards of carry. Woody Marks with some of that stuff at the end, I think his was just
10:09under
10:09four yards of carry, but overall, you combine those two guys, and you've got a pretty good
10:16run game, pretty complementary run game, and that's really all you need with CJ Stroud playing
10:20the way he's played. Nick Cayley was absolutely tremendous today. I mean, just throughout,
10:25to have your quarterback playing at that level has a lot to do with the offensive coordinator as well,
10:30but really throughout, and some of the key calls, you mentioned the Jalen Knoll, kind of a little
10:35whip route and go kind of thing. The Woody Marks, you know, the Woody Marks throw there
10:40at the end to get us in the field goal range. I mean, schematically, that's the kind of
10:45throwing ocean, throwing the ocean that you need. I mean, Nick Cayley was great today, and none better
10:51than CJ Stroud. He's been great all year long. He was, add another game to the sample size of how
10:56great he's been. Well, and they, this game, for the Jags, to me, this game was lost in the first
11:02half
11:02because somehow the Jags, in a game where they had more than twice as many plays run as the Texans,
11:09I'm looking at the halftime numbers of this game, it's kind of a miracle the Texans were up 17-14
11:13at
11:14the half. Their whole offense was basically a 40, 42-yard drop in the bucket to Nico, and then the
11:2150-yarder to Jalen Knoll. That was largely their offense that half. The Jags at halftime had run 44
11:28plays to the Texans, 20. The Texans were 0-3 on third down. The Jags were 5-8. The time
11:36of possession
11:36was 2-1. Yep. It was 20 minutes to 10 minutes, and the rushing yards was 85 yards for the
11:42Jags, 22 yards
11:44for the Texans. You look at just those four things blindly, and you go, which team's winning this game?
11:48I'm like, this thing's got to be 28-0. Yeah, it's lopsided the other way, right? It's lopsided. It was
11:5217-14
11:53Texans so that they're able to kind of hang in, and again, on the strength of C.J. Stroud, who
11:58was
11:58tremendous, really, other than the interception, was tremendous again all day today. Kept them in
12:04the game, and then the fact you're getting the ball to come out to start the second half, and then
12:07the
12:07Jags, it was a pretty clean game for most of the game in the first half, and then the Jags
12:12made a
12:12couple mistakes. The big one was 12 men on the field. The 12 men on the field, the Texans are
12:17about
12:17to punt. They're about to go three and out on that drive to start the second half, and the Jags
12:22have 12 men
12:22on the field, and that keeps the drive moving, and that's where it ended with the Jalen Knoll,
12:26the touchdown there. So, man, just phenomenal, phenomenal stuff from the Houston Texans. On
12:34offense today, we'll certainly talk about the defense. You know, there was issues there. I
12:39don't know how much of it was the traction out there. There was no pass rush for either team.
12:43These are both teams that are pretty good at rushing the passer. Zero sacks for either team,
12:49and really not even a lot of danger for either of these quarterbacks today.
12:53Yeah, that's a good point because there was both quarterbacks seemed to be really comfortable the
12:58majority of the game. There were a couple of blitzes that got through Scott Free, and I think
13:02Tommy Togiai got through Scott Free one time that put some pressure on Trevor Lawrence, but as a whole,
13:07the quarterbacks were really, really comfortable today. But you look there, clearly the narrative,
13:12if you will, has changed for the Houston Texans. The offense is what's going to carry this football
13:17team. That's the third. Three out of six games, or three of six games, they've scored 30-plus points
13:22and been really impressive. I think the offense is going to have to carry this football team.
13:27The defense is going to continue to struggle, whether it's injuries or just whatever. If
13:32offensive minds in the game have figured out D'Amico's defense, and he's going to have to mix
13:36things up a little bit, the defense has got some things to figure out. But I think in Houston
13:42overall with the Texans, right now, this is an offensive-led football team. This is a
13:47C.J. Stroud-led football team. And I don't know what the final record's going to look like,
13:52Sean, and it's crazy to be here right now at two and four. But the maturity of C.J. Stroud,
13:57the development of C.J. Stroud is an absolute game changer for the future of this organization.
14:01For the future. Yeah, yeah.
14:03There was a comment made. I'm going to go back and try to find it for our show tomorrow,
14:06Sean. There was a comment made by, I believe it was either the play-by-play or the sideline. I'm
14:13not sure. But they alluded to D'Amico Rhines in his meetings, the prep meetings for this game,
14:19actually saying, I think he used the term breakthrough, referring to C.J. Stroud and
14:24that kind of thing. I'm telling you, it's hard to see it at two and four. It's hard to see
14:30it at
14:30two and four because everything's about right here, right now. But I'm telling you, what we're
14:35watching from C.J. Stroud is a game changer for the future of this organization.
14:40Yeah, he's been absolutely tremendous. Well, Nick Casario did an interview in London over the last
14:47couple of days with Brian T. Smith, who used to write for the Chronicle. And he lives over in the
14:51UK now. And he actually used the words, we want C.J. to be our quarterback for a long, long
14:58time.
14:58Yeah. Or for a long time to come, I think he said. But it was the first time you've ever
15:02heard Nick
15:03talk about something beyond, like, hey, we'll do the contract after the year's over. We had good
15:07talks. Right. So there's that. C.J.'s been outstanding. That's who I'm most happy for,
15:14because one, I didn't want that mistake to define this game for him. And two, it was nice
15:20to see him get an opportunity for redemption in this game. I think the biggest thing, Sean,
15:26to your point is, you know, I think even even the biggest fans or the fairest critics would
15:33say that there's appeared to be over the last year or so kind of a tug of war. I would
15:37go
15:38I would I would argue that you go back be anything beyond his rookie year when he played
15:42so well. There was a there began to be a little bit of a tug of war, whether it was
15:46Bobby
15:46Slowik and C.J. or whatever it may be. There was a little bit of a tug of war. I
15:50think you're
15:50at a spot right now where you several things are unfolding in front of our eyes with C.J.
15:54Stroud is is the thought of having like a game management quarterback and a game management
15:59approach to offensive football. I think that's out the window. Right. The thought of not not
16:05having not knowing whether you want the quarterback here to extend a contract or not because you
16:09got to pay your defense and you got a defensive minded head coach, which I've I've been I've
16:13been very aware of that situation. I think that is out the window. Right. So I think we're
16:18seeing I call it a power shift or just an organizational shift. And it's again, it's hard
16:26to even think that that's a reality at two and four. But I do. I do believe he's playing
16:30that way. So are we at a stage where we're saying if the Texans can just if they can just
16:36be average on defense? That's right. That's right. You're exactly right. That's crazy. Think
16:40about think about who you think. Now, look, I know we're six games in. I don't know who the
16:44best teams in the NFL are going to be. Right. But you think you had a chance to beat the
16:48Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen. Why? Because you scored 30. Yeah. Right. You had a chance
16:52to beat Dak Prescott and that crew over there with the best off. Why? Because your offense
16:57put up 30. Yeah. Right. You had you had you won today. Why? Because your offense put up
17:0134. Yep. I mean, so you look at this thing and it's with the exception of what the Cincinnati
17:08game your offense. I know. I know there was some there was some lulls in the indie game,
17:12but for the most part, your offense has been really, really good in five football games
17:17and damn sure giving you the chance to win five of the six. Yeah. Yeah. The indie game
17:21wasn't great. It was good when you needed it to be good at the end of the game. Yeah.
17:24All right. 713-572-4610. If you want to get in, we're off and running here on Texans postgame
17:30here on Texans radio presented by Reliant.