TEXANS 42, DOLPHINS 23
Texans open up the offense in 42-23 defeat of the Dolphins
Oct 25, 2018, 10:54 pm
The Texans came up tough against the Dolphins. Bob Levey/Getty Images)
The Texans took control and never looked back in a 42-23 defeat of the Miami Dolphins in the Thursday night prime-time matchup. Bill O’Brien used the same winning formula from the Jacksonville game to manage the offense early, opening it up in the second half for big plays and the most points they have scored in a game all season. The offense finished the game with plays of 34, 58, 73, and 49 yards to the tune of 427 yards of total offense and a five-touchdown night for Deshaun Watson.
He didn’t have to pass for a lot of yards, but Watson had a big game anyway. He threw for more touchdowns than incompletions, finishing the game 16 of 20 for 239 yards and 5 touchdowns. The most important stat was that he went the entire game without taking a sack.
It helped that there was a lot of balance to the game plan. Lamar Miller led ground game with 133 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown, including a big 58 yarder to set up a touchdown. The Texans ran for 188 yards as a team and got 8 of their 17 first downs on the ground.
In the air, Will Fuller led the way in yardage with 124 yards and had two of the biggest catches of the night. The first one was a 34-yard catch and run and the second was a huge 73-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter. DeAndre Hopkins had another big night as well with 82 yards and two touchdowns, one a 49-yarder. Rookie tight end Jordan Thomas had a breakout night at tight end. He caught his first two career touchdown passes on short yardage plays in the red zone, contributing to a 4 for 4 night for the Texans offense.
It wasn’t the greatest of nights for the defense but limiting Miami to field goals was crucial in the win. The Dolphins were trotting out former Texan quarterback Brock Osweiler to lead their offense and he did little to help his team. Miami’s first touchdown came on a running play after a bad penalty call on a field goal attempt gave them a fresh set of downs. They got one more when a trick play resulted in Danny Amendola throwing a touchdown to Kenyan Drake. The rest were field goals. The defense may have given up 370 yards of offense but the bend, don’t break play helped secure the win.
J.J. Watt got his 8th sack of the season on the first drive. He then blew up a 4th and 1 play to get the ball on downs. Houston would get five quarterback hits and seven passes defensed on the night as Osweiler could never really settle in. Tyrann Matheiu got his second sack of the season in the fourth quarter to help force a Miami punt. He wasn’t the only safety to make a splash play either. Justin Reid pulled down his second career interception on the first play of the second quarter.
This game looked close at the half with Houston leading only 14-10, but after they scored a touchdown on the first drive of the second half it just never looked close again. Deshaun Watson threw for four touchdowns in the second half to lead his team to a convincing win and a 5-3 record.
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Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.
Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.
General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to earn the second seed in the Western Conference.
Asked Monday why he wanted to add Durant to the team, Stone smiled broadly before answering.
“He’s Kevin Durant,” Stone said. “He’s just — he’s really good. He’s super-efficient. He had a great year last year. He’s obviously not 30 anymore, but he hasn’t really fallen off and we just think he has a chance to really be impactful for us.”
But trading Green to get him was not an easy decision for Stone, Houston’s general manager since 2020.
“Jalen’s awesome, he did everything we asked,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful combination of talent and work ethic along with being just a great human being. And any time that you have the privilege to work with someone who is talented and works really hard and is really nice, you should value it. And organizationally we’ve valued him tremendously, so yeah very hard.”
Green was criticized for his up-and-down play during the postseason when the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in seven games in the first round. But Green had improved in each of his four seasons in Houston, leading the team in scoring last season and playing all 82 games in both of the past two seasons.
Pressed for details about why Green's time was up in Houston, Stone wouldn't get into specifics.
“It’s the NBA and you can only do trades if a certain amount of money goes out and a certain amount comes in and there’s some positional overlap or at least overlap in terms of on ball presence,” he said. “And so that’s what the deal required.”
In Durant, the Rockets get a veteran of almost two decades who averaged 26.6 points and six rebounds a game last season and has a career average of 27.2 points and seven rebounds.
Houston loves the veteran experience and presence that Durant brings. Stone noted that the team had arranged for some of its players to work out with him in each of the past two offseasons.
“His work ethic is just awesome,” Stone said. “The speed at which he goes, not in a game … but the speed at which he practices and the intensity at which he practices is something that has made him great over the years and it started when he was very young. So of all the things that I hope rubs off, that’s the main one I think is that practice makes perfect. And I think one of the reasons he’s had such an excellent career is because of the intensity with which he works day in day out.”
Durant is a 15-time All-Star and four-time scoring champion, who was the Finals MVP twice. The former Texas Longhorn is one of eight players in NBA history to score at least 30,000 points and he won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Warriors.
Now he’ll join a team chasing its first NBA title since winning back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“Everything has to play out, but we do — we like the fit,” Stone said. “We think it works well. We think he will add to us and we think we will help him.”