Head-to-head breakdown: How the Texans and Browns match up in these key areas
Jan 12, 2024, 5:11 pm
CJ Stroud squares off against the Browns on Saturday. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.
CLEVELAND (11-6) at HOUSTON (10-7)
Saturday, 4:30 p.m. EST, NBC
OPENING LINE: Browns by 2 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
AGAINST THE SPREAD: Cleveland 10-6-1; Houston 9-8.
SERIES RECORD: Tied 7-7.
LAST MEETING: Cleveland beat Houston 36-22 on Dec. 24 in Houston.
LAST WEEK: Browns lost to Bengals 31-14; Texans beat Colts 23-19.
BROWNS OFFENSE: OVERALL (16), RUSH (12), PASS (19), SCORING (10).
BROWNS DEFENSE: OVERALL (1), RUSH (11), PASS (1), SCORING (13).
TEXANS OFFENSE: OVERALL (12), RUSH (23), PASS (7), SCORING (14).
TEXANS DEFENSE: OVERALL (14), RUSH (6), PASS (23), SCORING (11).
TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Browns minus-9; Texans plus-10.
BROWNS PLAYER TO WATCH: WR Amari Cooper. He dominated the Texans for a career-high 265 yards and two TDs on 11 catches in last month’s matchup despite playing with a heel injury. Cooper could have surpassed 300 yards, but the Browns pulled him early in the fourth quarter while leading by 29 before re-inserting him. Cooper sat out the past two games to rest his heel. He finished the regular season with 72 catches for 1,250 yards.
TEXANS PLAYER TO WATCH: WR Nico Collins had nine catches for a career-high 195 yards in the win over the Colts, highlighted by a 75-yard TD grab in the first quarter. He has a career-high 1,297 yards receiving this season to join Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins as the only players in franchise history to reach 1,200 yards receiving. Collins, who is in his third year in the NFL, has been great at home this season and has 906 yards receiving with seven TD catches in nine games in Houston.
KEY MATCHUP: Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz vs. Texans rookie QB C.J. Stroud. Schwartz turned Cleveland’s defense from an also-ran into the league’s best this season, and his main objectives will not only be getting pressure on Stroud by trying to confuse him by mixing up coverages. Stroud missed the Dec. 24 game with a concussion. He has 4,108 yards passing this season for the third most by a rookie in NFL history. He has 23 touchdown passes with just five interceptions.
KEY INJURIES: Browns Pro Bowl CB Denzel Ward hurt his knee in practice on Thursday and is questionable. ... K Dustin Hopkins (hamstring) will miss his third straight game with an injury sustained when trying catch a Texans returner on a kickoff last month. Riley Patterson will handle kicking duties. … Browns S Grant Delpit returned to practice after missing four games but isn't ready to play. ... Browns WR Cedric Tillman (concussion) is also out. ... Houston rookie DE Will Anderson Jr. missed practice this week with an ankle injury but should play. … DE Jerry Hughes is dealing with an ankle injury that could keep him out this week. … DE Jonathan Greenard has missed the past two games with an ankle injury but could return.
SERIES NOTES: This is the third meeting between these teams in the past 13 months that are forever linked by Houston’s blockbuster trade of star quarterback Deshaun Watson to Cleveland before last season. … Cleveland has won the past four games in the series. … Houston’s most recent win came in a 29-13 victory in 2018 that was the team’s fifth straight win in the series. … These teams first met in Houston’s inaugural season in 2002 when Cleveland got a 34-17 win.
STATS AND STUFF: The Browns are making just their third playoff appearance since their 1999 expansion rebirth, but second in four seasons under coach Kevin Stefanski. … On their most recent playoff visit, the Browns won their first road game since 1968. … Stefanski is 10-0 vs. the AFC South. … Browns QB Joe Flacco’s seven postseason road wins are tied for the most in league history. Tom Brady also has seven. … This will be Flacco’s 16th playoff start. He’s 10-5. … Flacco is 4-1 with Cleveland and has passed for 1,616 yards and 13 TDs in five games since debuting for the Browns on Dec. 3. Both are league highs since Week 13. … Flacco passed for 368 yards and 3 TDs in Cleveland’s win over Houston last month. … Remarkably, the Browns led the NFL with 37 giveaways and were minus-9 in turnover differential. Houston has committed a league-low 14. … Browns DE Myles Garrett didn't get a sack in last month's matchup with Houston, and has just one in his past five games. ... The Browns rested all their starters last week for the playoffs and missed a chance to tie the club record of 12 regular-season wins. ... The Texans are AFC South champions and in the playoffs for the first time since 2019 after making a seven-win improvement from last season. … Coach DeMeco Ryans is the first coach in franchise history to make the playoffs in his first season. … Houston is the first team in the Super Bowl era to win a division title with a rookie quarterback and first-year head coach. … RB Devin Singletary has a career-high 898 yards rushing this season. He has three touchdown runs in his past four playoff games. … Noah Brown has a career-high 567 yards receiving this season. … WR Robert Woods has 38 catches in six playoff games. … TE Dalton Schultz has 59 receptions for 635 yards and five touchdowns this season, and is one of three TEs with at least 50 catches, 500 yards receiving and five TD receptions in each of the past three seasons. … LT Laremy Tunsil was selected to his fourth career Pro Bowl this season. … Greenard leads the team with a career-high 12½ sacks. … Anderson, the third overall pick in the draft, has six sacks in his past five home games. … LB Blake Cashman leads the Texans with a career-high 104 tackles and nine for losses. … LB Christian Harris has 100 tackles and seven tackles for losses this season. He has had at least five tackles in his past 10 games. … CB Derek Stingley leads the team with 13 passes defended and five interceptions.
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Milos Uzan scored 16 points, LJ Cryer added 15 and No. 1 seed Houston was able to rest up for the rest of the NCAA Tournament while romping past No. 16 seed SIU Edwardsville 78-40 on Thursday in the first round of the Midwest Region.
Ja’Vier Francis added 13 points and eight rebounds for Houston (31-4), which now gets a tough second-round matchup with No. 8 seed Gonzaga on Saturday. The Bulldogs blitzed ninth-seeded Georgia, 89-68, in their tournament opener.
“I thought our defense and our rebounding, two of the things we really emphasize, was good today,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Shot selection was really good to start the game — knocked some shots down, got off to a good start.”
The Cougars finished well, too. The final margin was the biggest of the game.
Ray’Sean Taylor had 10 points for SIUE (22-12), which was just 2 of 24 from the 3-point arc in its first NCAA appearance.
“It’s definitely a gut-punch because I feel like we had more to give for sure,” said Taylor, breaking down in tears. “When I look back at it, I’m not going to be mad about the game. I don’t like to lose, but I’m never going to hold my head down ever. I never let anyone see me with my head down. They played better than us today.
“Good luck to them. They have a team to win it all.”
It’s never a good formula for springing an NCAA upset to let what is arguably the best defensive team in the country also shoot better than 60% from the field and only turn it over twice during the first 20 minutes of a game.
That’s exactly what SIUE did against Houston.
The Cougars probably knew they were in for a tough afternoon against a bigger, more athletic bunch of Cougars in the first few minutes, when Houston scored on nine straight offensive possessions. At the other end, SIUE struggled just to get shots off — at one point, guard Brian Taylor II was trapped so quickly that he genuinely looked perplexed.
The whole affair may have been summed up by the last 3 seconds of the first half: SIUE forward Myles Thompson was trapped near midcourt, turned the ball over, and Cryer promptly drilled a 3 from the wing to give Houston a 52-24 lead.
Sampson’s bunch kept extending the lead all the way to the finish.
“They were physical, made some shots early when we had a couple breakdowns, and then they hit some really hard shots as well,” SIUE coach Brian Barone said. “We weren’t able to dig out of that hole.”
Key Takeaways
SIU Edwardsville may have had more fans — or at least louder ones — than Houston for its NCAA tourney debut. They cheered all the way to the finish, too, when Barone took his starters out of the game.
Houston was no doubt pleased to see J’Wan Roberts moving around fine on the ankle he sprained in the Big 12 Tournament. He was able to spend much of the second half resting with the rest of the Cougars’ starters on the bench.
Up Next
Houston advanced to the second round for the seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament.