Davis Mills started his night by engineering a touchdown drive. He finished it the same way.
Mills and the Texans offense marched 85 yards down the field in 11 plays on their first possession, capping it with a 1-yard scoring run by rookie running back Dameon Pierce.
The second-year signal-caller played the entire first half, as well as the first series after the intermission. On that third quarter drive, Mills and company went 77 yards on six plays, and he found receiver Chris Moore for a 16-yard touchdown pass to end it.
"I just wanted to come out and put together a drive to start the half and do down and get points," Mills said. "That's what we did."
When Mills exited, he'd completed 6-of-10 passes for 58 yards and a score, and was also picked off once.
Head Coach Lovie Smith said he and the Texans planned on Mills playing the first half and then the first possession of the second half.
"In an ideal world, we wanted him to have some success," Smith said. "Come out one drive, do something good, and get out of there. Which we were able to do."
The possession that ended with the Moore touchdown began with Mills finding Wide Receiver Chris Conley for a 5-yard completion. Marlon Mack carried for two yards, and then Mills went deep for Wide Receiver Nico Collins. The second-year pass-catcher drew a pass interference call, and the offense moved 26 yards down the field to the San Francisco 44-yard line.
A 24-yard gain by Mack came on the next play, and three plays later, Mills found Moore for the score.
On the whole, Mills is ready to turn the page on the preseason and get ready for the opener on September 11 against Indianapolis. After keeping things fairly basic on offense over the three August contests, Mills is optimistic about what's to come.
"I think the sky's the limit with what we're capable of doing on offense," Mills said. "I think it's going to be very unique what we're going to do here, compared to different teams around the league. It will be really exciting pulling some of those tricks out of the bag once we get to Week 1 versus the Colts. "
Browse tickets for Texans-Colts season kickoff on September 11 at 12:00 PM.
