No it wasn't literally a chess match. But the game panned out into a defensive war between two stellar teams. Small mistakes leading to the only points tonight. Denver brought in Peyton Manning for his first preseason snaps against a Houston defense that elected to keep J.J Watt, Vince Wilfork, and Jonathan Joseph out of action tonight. The Bubble Wrap game for Houston was a good call to see the younger guys get in the game and make an impact over proven starts.
The Broncos started with the ball and found no rhythm at all. It was a quick series to turn the game over to the Texans offense being led by Ryan Mallet tonight. The Texans got a couple of nice gaines of the bat but the series quickly died out when the Texans got near midfield. Mallet would run the Texans offense twice on the night, turning in a dismal 5-7 for 23 yards.
Peyton Manning would play into the second quarter and finished 8-14 for 52 yards. He was relieved by Brock Osweiler who put up the first points of the game on a blown play by Texans coner A.J Bouye, who was beaten by Andre Caldwell. The Broncos would kick the extra point and took the 7-0 lead into halftime, largely due to the continuation of the Texans offensive struggles.
Brian Hoyer came in relief of Ryan Mallet and put up another below average outing for the Texans. Hoyer threw 7-11 for 52 yards as he played for most of the first half.
In the second half, the Texans came out with the ball and Tom Savage got the only offensive points for Houston, leading the Texans down the field for Randy Bullock to kick a 32 yard field goal.
The Texans would take the lead in the third quarter off of a pick 6 returned by linebacker Kourtnei Brown who returned the interception 68 yards. The Texans would gain a 10-7 lead at this point.
For the second straight week, the Texans got in point blank range and failed to get in the endzone and turned the ball over on downs. It's possible that the Texans aren't completely opening up their playbook but two weeks straight of the same problem that could have sealed the game. It's gotta hurt.
Within two minutes left, the Broncos would score the go-ahead touchdown on a 26 yard touchdown pass from Trevor Siemian to Corbin Louks. The Texans would get one last chance to take the win from the Broncos but Tom Savage would get sacked at the 32 yard line of Denver to kill the game winning drive for Houston.
The Broncos would go on to win 14-10 in a real battle. For the preseason, the Broncos move up to 2-0 and the Texans slip to 1-1. Next Saturday the Broncos will take on the San Francisco 49ers at home and the Texans will travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints.