The Texans, hot off an extremely disappointing loss to the Seattle Seahawks, come back to Houston to host the San Francisco 49ers in another tilt against a difficult NFC West opponent that could decide
the Texans season. This is the first home game for the Texans since their victory over the Titans, and they’re desperate to get another win just like that to stay alive in a crowded AFC. The 49ers, despite relying on backup quarterback Mac Jones for most of the season, is 5-2 and in the thick of a busy NFC West race for the division crown. Both the 49ers and Texans come into this game with top ranked defenses, but Houston’s offense has been the big bugaboo in all of their losses while the 49ers just keep winning, mostly thanks to McCaffrey. For both teams, a win here is critical, so let’s recap:
Quarter 1 (3-0 Houston Texans)
Scoring this Quarter: Texans: 3; 49ers: 0
You may have thought the Houston Texans were dead fish in the water…showing so little life on offense against the Seahawks that a +3 turnover differential still wasn’t enough to win. But, from the grave they have returned! At a crucial moment of the season, the Texans came out in the opening drive this game and had maybe their most impressive, most time consuming…field goal drive of the season. Even though it was just three points, that opening drive ate up nearly ten minutes off the clock. Nick Chubb and Braxton Berrios suddenly became big parts of the offense on this drive, ultimately resulting in a 33-yard field goal.
After that long drive, the 49ers only had a chance for a single drive the first quarter: a 4-play, 3-yard drive highlighted San Fran penalties on the first three plays of the game. A few incompletions later, and they were punting back to the Houston offense, who was just getting started.
Quarter 2 (16-7 Houston Texans)
Scoring this Quarter: Texans: 13; 49ers: 7
In Houston’s second offensive drive, rookie running back Woody Marks made another highlight-reel play. On 2nd & 5, immediately after getting a 5-yard rush, Stroud flicked the ball to an open Marks and he went rolling for a 50-yard gain!
After that, Nick Chubb and Stroud himself were able to combine on two rushes to get another first down, but the offense stalled in the red-zone as Stroud airmailed a pass over Jayden Higgins and Hutchinson couldn’t get a conversion on a third-down slant route. Out comes Ka’imi Fairbairn again, and it’s 6-0 Houston. Glory to the all field goal offense!
Another 49ers punt later thanks to a big tackle on third-and-short by Jalen Pitre, and the Texans offense was humming yet again: 10 plays, 82 yards, and a touchdown to rookie wide reciever Jayden Higgins! Despite a holding penalty by Jake Andrew early in the drive, the offense was undaunted and excelled at keeping Stroud clean, giving him chances to target Xavier Hutchinson, the aforementioned Higgins, and fellow rookie Jaylin Noel. Battle Red Blog analyst Clayston Anderson has been covering the rookie Iowa State receivers, and thanks in part to this drive where Noel caught two passes for 51 yards, this might have been their best game as a duo, yet. Noel was on fire this game, and left the 49ers defensive backfield in shambles time and time again. Thanks to him and Higgins, it was now 13-0 Houston. How would the 49ers and their quarterback Mac Jones respond to this early hole?
With a three and out! Mac Jones got one five-yard completion out of this drive, and their star running back Christian McCaffrey was yet again stuffed. Houston’s defense has been good all season, but completely eliminating McCaffrey from the first half of this game is going to be one of their crowning achievements. Azeez Al-Shaair, E.J. Speed, and Jalen Pitre deserve a hefty amount of credit for accomplishing this.
Now, the Houston’s surprisingly red-hot offense – looking a lot more like they did in Baltimore than in Seattle – was getting their third possession of the second quarter with 5:52 left on the clock! Plenty of time for Stroud, Hutchinson, and Marks to chew up yards and time, getting 62 yards upfield until stalling out in the San Francisco red zone for the third time. This would be Fairbairn’s third field goal attempt inside 40 yards, and it was good yet again. 16-0 Houston with under a minute left seems like it should put all Texans’ fans over the moon, but nine points off of field goals made some fans (me) feel a little…trepidatious about the early lead.
That uneasiness was quickly validated by San Francisco, too. They responded to this long Texans field goal drive with a massive kickoff return of 61-yards, which wa then exacerbated by a 15-yard face mask penalty of Houston’s Dylan Horton, which was then capitalized on by Mac Jones. He started this drive on the Houston 35 yard-line, and only needed two passes to get into the end zone. Mac Jones, tight end George Kittle, and the 49ers were now on the board with a touchdown, making it 16-7 Houston with 25 seconds left in the first half.
With just 25 seconds, Stroud and the offense weren’t able to cash in like they had the previous three possessions. Marks got a dump off pass from Stroud, and then Stroud launched a pass to Jaylin Noel (not a bad idea), which was then intercepted as time expired. So, despite the deflating end to the half, Houston was still leading the mighty 5-win 49ers by a score of 16-7 at the half. However, San Francisco would get the ball back after halftime? How would they capitalize after making their halftime adjustments?
With another three-and-out!
Quarter 3 (23-15 Houston Texans)
Scoring this Quarter: Texans: 7; 49ers: 8
Even though the story of this game will go the the Texans offense for finally knocking off a good football team, the defense – as always – deserves their time in the spotlight. The 49ers came out of halftime and immediately started feeding the ball to their stars: McCaffrey, Kittle, and wide receiver Jauan Jennings. Despite their abilities, however, it only yielded 7 yards. So, just like last quarter, Houston complimented this defensive stop with a long scoring drive of their own, this time getting a touchdown instead of a field goal. Both running backs and both rookie wide receivers contributed to a drive filled with 5, 10, and 15-yard completions, but the touchdown went to Xavier Hutchinson on a beautiful route and throw from Stroud that went for 30-yards. This kind of drive is exactly what offensive coordinator Nick Caley wants to make routine in Houston.
But, unfortunately for them, they were not able to enjoy the lead for long. San Francisco went on a 12-play, 76-yard touchdown drive immediately after Houston’s scoring drive, getting the production they’ve been looking for out of their big three McCaffrey, Kittle, and Jennings. They scored their second touchdown of the game with 28 seconds left in the third quarter, and following it up with a successful two point conversion to make the score 23-15 Houston.
Now, the 49ers were here. The Texans defense had done an admirable job holding them to just seven points up until this point, but that could not last forever. Now, it was an one-possession game – how would the Texans offense respond?
Quarter 4 (26-15 Houston Texans)
Scoring this Quarter: Texans 3; 49ers: 0
Even though this wasn’t the emphatic fourth quarter the Texans offense may have been hoping for, they started off with a 10-play field goal drive that took 5:47 off the clock. After handing the spotlight off to Stroud and the wide receivers in the middle of the game, Woody Marks snatched it back in this drive. He marched the Texans all the way down to the San Francisco 13-yard line off of several big gains. Although, once again, the offense stalled out in the 49ers red zone, unable to get Marks enough space to cash the pivotal drive in. They took their fourth and last field goal at the San Francisco 11-yard line with 9:41 left in the game. The score was now 26-15, and all the Texans would need is a couple more big stops on defense to pack this game away.
They got the first big stop immediately, forcing the 49ers to a three-and-out on the ensuing possession. But, both they and the Texans offense on the following drive would burn so little time off the clock that San Francisco was able to get the ball back with 4:13 left in the game. On Mac Jones’ second drive of the fourth quarter, we was able to get far more production out of Jauan Jennings, Christian McCaffrey, and wide receiver Kendrick Bourne. They quickly pushed into Texans’ territory before the two-minute warning, primed to take a shot downfield and make it a one-score game with plenty of time left on the clock. The grim reaper was here for the Texans! It couldn’t be! Mac Jones saw what he wanted at the Houston 41-yardline, fired into the end zone, and…INTERCEPTION! Second-year cornerback Kamari Lassiter comes up with the game-winning turnover at the Houston 1-yardyard line. In a game where fellow the defense seemed to be choking the game away in the final seconds, it was Kamari Lassiter making the big play to ice this game.
Although, with 1:56 remaining, there was still enough garbage time for both teams to get one final possession in. Houston ran the ball three times to safely burn through the 49ers remaining timeouts, went three and out, and gave the ball back to San Francisco with 53 seconds left, up 11 points. Mac Jones immediately got sacked by Will Anderson Jr on the final possession, and the game was all but over. A few short passes later, and the 49ers had turned the ball over on downs and handed Houston their third win of the season.
Final Score: Houston Texans 26, San Francisco 49ers 15
This was one of the most surprisingly victories in recent Texans history. The entire fanbase had basically filleted new offensive coordinator Nick Caley after a disastrous start to the 2025 season. Stroud and the offense had showed some life against the lowly Titans and Ravens, but last week’s poor showing had confirmed to everyone that those good performances were only the exception, not the rule. Well, now that Caley has dismantled the 5-2 49ers, another wave of debate will sweep through as debate rages on whether or not Houston has finally turned a corner. Regardless if they actually have or not, this was the kind of game the entire Texans offense needed to reestablish confidence in themselves. Stroud, the rookie receivers, and the offensive line needed a game where they performed well, avoided penalties, stayed on schedule, and capitalized on short-yardage routes. They had all of that in this game, and because of that, I feel a lot better about this 3-4 team than I probably have reason to.
Next up, the Texans will host the Denver Broncos in an AFC wildcard tilt. Houston is still trying to dig their way back to .500, and if they have any fixings on making the playoffs, it’ll start with a victory against the Broncos. If Jaylin Noel, Jayden Higgins, and Woody Marks and steal the show yet again, they’ll have a very good chance!
GO TEXANS!!!
