The Houston Texans this season became the first team to win a division with a rookie quarterback and rookie head coach.
And that rookie duo now has their first career playoff victory.
The No. 4 Houston Texans defeated the No. 5 Cleveland Browns 45-14 in an AFC wild-card matchup on Saturday. There did not appear to be any playoff debut jitters for quarterback C.J. Stroud or head coach DeMeco Ryans as the Texans, a team that last season was just 3-13-1, advanced to the divisional round.
It was the fifth playoff win in the team’s 22-year history. One more victory would make it the franchise’s most successful season, with the Texans having gone 0-4 in the divisional round.
To get back there they had to defeat a Browns team that entered with a dominant defense and a thriving veteran quarterback…and neither dominated or thrived against the Texans.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers from the Texans’ dominant victory over the Browns.
In the first half of his first postseason game, Stroud threw three passing touchdowns to tie the rookie single-game playoff record. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 236 yards in the half, shredding a top-ranked Browns passing defense that allowed just 164.7 passing yards per game. That was capped by a 76-yard touchdown to Brevin Jordan and 37-yard touchdown to Dalton Schultz that gave the Texans a 24-14 halftime lead.
