At NRG Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Houston Texans won 21-16 against the Arizona Cardinals. An interesting game between two teams from different conferences that was very interesting.
The Houston Texans were in second place in the AFC South and needed to win in order not to fall behind in the tournament. They were coming off a tough game against Cincinnati Bengals, where the Texans won 30-27 by scoring a last second field goal to get another win on the season. The conference has become very close and a loss could mean not getting into the postseason. Therefore, in this game they were looking for the victory and to secure their second place in the overall standings.
On the other hand, the Arizona Cardinals came from a bad start of the tournament and their goal was to win the away game to try to break their bad streak. The team coached by Jonathan Gannon was in fourth place in the NFC West and needed a victory to steal third place from the Rams.
The game started, the Arizona Cardinals quickly scored on their first offensive drive, Kyler Murray threw a 48-yard pass to find Rondale Moore and they were up by 7 points. However, the Texans would respond at the 5:48 mark, C.J. Stroud passed the ball to Dalton Schultz who only had to advance one step to get into the end zone and the game was tied. To close the quarter, Matt Prater kicked a 57-yard field goal to put the Cardinals up by 3 points. It was a high scoring quarter, where the Arizona team took a small 3 point lead and won the first quarter.
The next quarter was dominated by the Houston Texans, Devin Singletary scored a touchdown when he got rid of several defenders to score on the ground and his team turned the score around. In the last seconds of the game, Tank Dell receives the ball in the end zone from a 40-yard pass from C.J. Stroud. The first half ended and the score was Arizona Cardinals 10-21 Houston Texans.
Coming back from the break, the Arizona Cardinals attacked with everything they had and showed an impeccable defense. At the 2:52 minute mark, Kyler Murray ran a one-yard run to bring his team closer to the scoreboard, but then they tried a two-point conversion that fell one yard short. The Texans were up by 5 points and would have to defend their lead in the final quarter.
In the last quarter, the Houston Texans kept their lead and made a very good defense. All attempts by the Arizona Cardinals to get the game back were interrupted by the home defense. With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, it was evident that the Cardinals would not recover, giving up and giving the Texans a 21-16 victory.
Upcoming games and featured players
The Texans will play at home again, their next game will be against Jacksonville Jaguars on November 26 at NRG Stadium. There are still quite a few games left in the regular season, they will continue with their fight to enter the postseason. It is worth mentioning the great play of quarterback C.J. Stroud, he dominated the whole game and had 336 yards passing and two touchdown passes.
The Arizona Cardinals will play at home again, their next game will be against the Los Angeles Rams on November 26 at State Farm Stadium. Their outstanding players were Kyler Murray with 214 passing yards and also wide receiver Rondale Moore who had 1 touchdown and 48 receiving yards.