Texans players on blowing a big lead in playoff loss to Chiefs: ‘It was not fun’
Momentum was a word used frequently by the Houston Texans players after Sunday’s 51-31 loss to the Chiefs in an AFC Divisional Playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Texans most certainly had it when they sprinted to a 24-0 lead. But the Chiefs took it back with three touchdowns in a 3 minute, 24 second span of the second quarter.
“It was not fun,” Houston defensive lineman J.J. Watt said via a postgame quote sheet. “Sports are all about highs and lows. When you boil it down, that is what it is about. It is about people coming to the game, people play the game to experience those highs and lows. Today we experienced an extreme high early. We experienced a hell of a lot of lows as the game went on. It sucked. It was not fun, but that is what happens.
“You wish it didn’t happen like that, but that is what happened so now you have to live with that, and that is what happens when you get into this game. You live for the highs and you hope to avoid the lows, but you have to understand that in order to strive for those highs that you are going to potentially face the consequences of the lows that come with it. Stuff that is where we are. We are experiencing the low and it sucks.”
Safety Justin Reid said the Texans never counted the Chiefs out, even when the score was 24-0.
“It was a real good feeling at that point,” Reid said, via a postgame quote sheet. “You just got to keep that going. Football is really big on momentum. It’s all about momentum. We had a big amount of momentum in the first quarter and they took the momentum in the second quarter. We were just trying to fight and get it back.”
One big play for the Chiefs was stopping the Texans on a fake punt when the score was 24-7 in the second quarter. The Chiefs got the ball back and scored a touchdown that cut the lead to 10. Reid said Houston could have switched off the fake but he thought it would be successful.
“We really wanted to find a situation where we could steal back momentum. Hats off to 49 (Daniel Sorensen). He did a great job making the play and stopped me from getting that first down,” Reid said.
Quarterback Deshaun Watson summed up the game this way when talking with reporters after the game: “A momentum switch, and we couldn’t get it back. That’s pretty much it.”
The Texans players also praised the Chiefs.
“We have to give them an incredible amount of credit,” Watt said. “That is a great football team, great coaching staff, great players. Patrick Mahomes is an incredible player. Those guys deserve a ton of credit. Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, I mean those guys all deserve a ton of credit. On our side, it is just a matter of making a play. It is a matter of finding a way to break up that momentum. That run that they made, we didn’t do it.”
Wide receiver DeAndre Carter said in a quote sheet: “We’ve got to finish. We’ve got to play the whole game. Football is not a one quarter game. We didn’t get the job done. We didn’t finish. I take my hat off to those guys (the Chiefs). They came out and played the whole game. They had ... a great game plan.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 11:27 AM.
