It's fitting that Ryan Fitzpatrick now owns the franchise record for touchdown passes in a game.
After all, he's a unique individual.
Harvard-educated.
Once ate a 72-oz steak in 48 minutes.
Listed Marty Feldstein as his favorite economist.
Sported a voluminous beard until trimming it last week.
Fitzpatrick hit paydirt six times on Sunday against the Titans in the 45-21 victory, and the hot game was a culmination of a terrific week of practice.
"I felt really confident," Fitzpatrick said. "I threw the ball well all week. It was one of those things where I got sat down a few weeks ago, I didn't know if I would have the chance to go out there again and play and be the starter."
Ryan Mallett took over for the 10-year veteran heading into the bye week. A chest injury and trip to the injured reserve on Tuesday put Fitzpatrick back in the starting role, and he responded with the best game of his career.
"You can't say enough about him as a person," head coach Bill O'Brien said. "Like I said when we made Mallett the starter, it wasn't all Fitzy's fault. It was just, hey look, we felt like we were making a decision that was best for the team at the time. Like I said this week, maybe it helped Fitz to take a step back. You never want to see anybody get hurt like Mallett did, but maybe it helped Fitz to see how the offense was operated and he went in there and did a good job."
Fitzpatrick was a sterling 24-of-33 passing for 358 yards. He found six different receivers on the day, and five of them caught touchdowns. He also wasn't sacked, despite going down five times in Week 8 against the same Tennessee defense. Left tackle Duane Brown said the Texans didn't expect the fireworks, but they knew Fitzpatrick would be ready.
"We had no doubt in our mind that he was going to come out and perform," Brown said. "He prepared so well this week, we prepared well as an o-line and tried to do everything we can to give him time to operate back there and these are the results and we just have to keep doing this week in and week out."
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was Fitzpatrick's favorite target through the first nine games, and that was the case again on Sunday. Hopkins caught all nine passes thrown his way and finished with a whopping 238 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He cited a bond formed months ago for the explosion against the Titans.
"In the offseason, me and Fitz had a great connection coming into the season and we knew if we could get on track, then things were going to be good and we picked up on that today," Hopkins said.
There were smiles all around in the postgame locker room, but Fitzpatrick and the Texans said the celebration would be short-lived.
"We are going to move on and go to the next one because that's what the NFL is," Fitzpatrick said. "Those six touchdowns that we had today are not going to count next week. We will have tonight to celebrate and we will spend it with family and everything, but we will move on tomorrow."
The Texans travel to Jacksonville in Week 14 for a noon CT matchup with the Jaugars.
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