How C.J. Stroud’s heroics kept Texans’ postseason hopes alive

By now, every NFL football fan in the country knows that the Houston Texans are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019. If that information is new to you, you must have missed the rambunctious cheers coming from Houston last weekend when the Texans defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 23-19, to advance to the postseason.

For the Texans to punch their ticket, they needed their fearless young rookie quarterback to have a moment that they believed would happen, that they knew could happen, and watched as it happened. But he could not do it alone. He would also need wide receiver Nico Collins to continue to have the lights-out performance he was having on the day.

With the score tied at 17 early in the fourth quarter, Stroud took the field at 13:27 and began to put on a master class in handling pressure and adversity on the eventual game-winning drive that would have had most veteran quarterbacks folding under the anxiety and stress with so much on the line.

Stroud didn’t get nervous on second down, needing 14 yards to move the chains when the pocket started collapsing around him. The former two-time Heisman finalist from Ohio State scrambled to buy himself and his receivers more time to make a play, a drill the offense works on every Thursday during game preparations.

Nico Collins on the huge fourth quarter play against the Colts:
“He just threw it in the air and put enough air under it and I said, ‘Oh yea, I got time to go and get that.’ I got it, laid out and moved the sticks for the team. I felt like that was a big play. We needed it.” pic.twitter.com/W3JiMMPjmk

— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) January 12, 2024

As former teammate Jacob Martin barreled down on Stroud, he threw the ball toward the Texans’ sideline. To the untrained eye, it looked as if the ball was being thrown away, which was wise given the circumstances, yet Stroud and Collins knew precisely what the plan was when the play began to break down.

“I think it was pressure, so C.J. had to do what he had to,” said Collins, who finished the game with 195 yards receiving and one touchdown. “I seen him scrambling, so I was going to work with him. The same thing we have been doing every Thursday right before practice, scramble dills and off scheduled plays.

“I seen him scrambling and he was about to go to the right, my left, his right, and I was about to go with him and then I seen he was going back so I ran and tried to get in his picture. He just threw it in the air and put enough air under it and I said, ‘Oh yea, I got time to go and get that.’ I got it, laid out and moved the sticks for the team. I felt like that was a big play. We needed it.”

The play even amazed Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik as he watched it unfold.

“I was floored,” Slowik said. “C.J. [Stroud] told me, you can see my reaction on tape. I thought it was a special play by two guys who are just incredible football players. When he let it go, I had an idea of what he was doing. I was standing way in the back, so I can kind of see all of the eligible, and Nico [Collins] happened to break right when C.J. was letting it go, but it looked like C.J. maybe changed where he was going with the ball mid-throw.

“When he first let it go, I thought it was just a safe throw-away, and then as it was hanging in the air, I thought it had a chance, and then Nico made an unbelievable catch. I think I lost my mind for about five seconds, and the guys had to get me back ready to call the next play. It was an incredible play by two really good players on a critical drive in the game.”

Stroud finished that drive without an incompletion, and his final pass to Collins on the day helped put Houston in scoring position as the running back carried the ball into the end zone from three yards out on the next play to give the Texans the lead and eventually the game.