Noah Brown is a playmaker.
The veteran receiver has played four games after missing four contests following an injury at Baltimore in Week 1.
In that quartet of games, Brown's caught 18 passes for 419 yards, which is good for 23.3 yards per reception. 15 of those catches resulted in a Texans first down.
"Noah's been outstanding," Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans said Monday. "He always seems to be open. Noah's been a very reliable guy. He finds a way to make big-time plays for us week after week."
In Sunday's thrilling win at Cincinnati, Brown was sitting on a 6-catch, 150-yard afternoon late in the fourth quarter. That's a fantastic game. But he wasn't finished.
Brown and the Texans offense faced a 2nd-and-6 at the Bengals' 42-yard line with 15 seconds remaining on the game clock. Quarterback C.J. Stroud found Brown on the left side of the field, who pulled it in at the 36-yard line. But then, he bulled his way out of the grasp of two would-be tacklers and rumbled ahead to the 20-yard line, where three more Bengals finally slowed his progress and stopped him with 0:05 left in regulation. That extra 15 yards or so gave kicker Matt Ammendola some extra breathing room on what would become his game-winning 38-yard field goal.
When the game finished, Brown had caught seven balls for 172 yards, and all seven of those receptions delivered first downs to the Texans offense.
"It's been great having him back," Ryans said. "He's showing up big time for us and helped us to win these games over the past couple weeks."
In every one of the four games he's appeared in since returning from injury, Brown has at least one reception of 30 yards or longer. Last week in the win over Tampa Bay, Brown checked in with a 6-catch, 153 yard performance. DeAndre Hopkins and Andre Johnson are the only other Texans receivers to log consecutive games with 100 receiving yards or more.
In all, Sunday, Brown tallied six catches that went for 20 yards or more. Nobody else has accomplished that in the NFL this season. But for Ryans, this is nothing new or surprising. He saw good things coming from Brown back in May during Organized Team Activities (OTAs).
The thing that sticks out to me about Noah is his consistency in OTAs and training camp," Ryans said. "I could highlight Noah every day for running a route to the exact precision, exactly how it's supposed to be ran. He's been able to have career days in back-to-back weeks, just because he just goes out, he puts the work in, doesn't say much. But he shows up in the crunch time and makes big plays for us."
Brown and the Texans return home and will face the Cardinals on Sunday at NRG Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT.
