It is nice to say 2-0, no matter how it looks. On the scoreboard, it's two wins and the first win at home of the 2024 season. It's the first time the Texans have been 2-0 since 2016. The Texans are now also 2-0 in a division where everyone else is 0-2. Yeah, it was a good day/night. Let's dive into some of the BIG plays in the Texans 19-13 win over the Bears.
2nd Quarter - 15:00 remaining
Tie game 3-3
2nd down and 24
+28 yard line
On the last play of the first quarter, Texans WR Nico Collins got in a little dust up with Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson and was flagged for a personal foul. So, not only did the Texans move backwards 15 yards, the flag was post play, meaning that it would be 2nd down when the Texans returned to action. During the stoppage, I watched Nico and I've seen him enough over the years to know that he was itching, ITCHING to make a play to make up for that penalty mistake. It took all of one play. The Texans came out in a 3x1 look, with TE Dalton Schultz, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell on the left side and Collins the one on the right side. The Bears looked to be playing some form or quarter, quarter, half coverage. On Collins' side, it looked like the cover two side, so the Texans played a little high low on the linebacker on that side. RB Joe Mixon circled up about five yards beyond the line of scrimmage and the LB bit on Mixon's route. That opened a massive hole for Collins on the glance route behind the linebacker. QB C.J. Stroud fired to an open Collins, who snatched the rock and turned into a running back…a big bad a🫢🫢 one too. As he made the catch at the ten yard line or so, he turned on the jets for the end zone. He got a GREAT block from Schultz who peeled back on S Jaquan Brisker and Collins ran over Jaylon Johnson at the goal line for the touchdown.
3rd Quarter - 0:55 remaining
Texans ahead 16-10 - Bears ball
3rd Down and 16
-39 yard line
Throughout the night, the Texans' defensive staff changed up the looks on the rookie Caleb Williams. On this play, they brought a six man pressure funk on Williams and played man coverage with some safety help over the top. Williams really didn't have many options on this play. He could've eaten the ball and taken another sack with the pressure that came from everywhere or he could try to get his best WR loose down the field. He chose option B and threw it deep to his guy D.J. Moore. The only problem was that Moore was wearing CB Derek Stingley Jr. down the field in coverage. Stingley had inside leverage and went up and snatched the rock out of the air for his first interception in 2024.
4th Quarter - 13:06 remaining
Texans ahead 19-10 - Bears ball
2nd Down & 15
-25 yard line
The Texans pass rush was just eating all night long, no matter whether there were four guys rushing, three or just one and the beer vendor. So, on this 2nd down play, the Texans brought just four and played a three deep zone. The Bears had a two by two formation, with two receivers to the left side, two receivers to the right side. Off the snap, DE Danielle Hunter threw a SICK spin move inside on RT Darnell Wright. Danielle swatted Wright out of the way and was in the face of QB Caleb Williams. Hunter reached for Williams and got a hold of Williams orange undershirt. He held on for as long as possible, but Williams broke loose. The Bears QB then rolled to his right side and unleashed a bomb to tight end Cole Kmet. But, rookie Kamari Lassiter leapt and snatched the ball out of the air for the first interception of his career.
4th Quarter - 1:07 remaining
Texans ahead 19-13 - Bears ball
2nd & ten
-47 yard line
Ahead just six, I could only think about how a Bears fluke touchdown would steal this one for Chicago. UGHHH. But, Danielle Hunter made me feel better after this play. The Texans pass rush harassed Williams all night long. Now, I've watched Hunter terrorize Bears OL all night long but he didn't do a ton on this play to get to Williams. LB Azeez Al-Shaair mugged in the A gaps and was the fifth rusher. What that did was get solo, 1-on-1 matchups everywhere on the line of scrimmage. The matchup that was a winner most of the night was Hunter on RT Darnell Wright. It looked like the Texans were playing man free coverage behind and the secondary locked up everyone at first glance. Unfortunately, for the Bears, that's all the time that Williams had in the pocket because 55 was on his way to the QB. Hunter gave Wright a little hesi and a deke inside. That got Wright to overextend and Danielle bounced back outside easily. Hunter grabbed the back of his pads and sling shotted past him on the outside. Williams never saw him and Hunter hammered him to the ground for a HUGE sack as the clock ticked down towards a Texans victory.
