Houston Texans use four field goals to down Kansas City Chiefs

Nick Novak (8) kicked four field goals to lead the Houston Texans
to a 19-12 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Photo by Darla Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved.

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2016 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (September 18, 2016) The Houston Texans used four field goals by Nick Novak and a single touchdown to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 19-12 at NRG Stadium on Sunday, September 18, 2016. With the win, the Texans move to 2-0 for the season and the Chiefs fell to 1-1. The victory gave the Texans their fifth straight regular season win dating back to Week 15 during the 2015 season. In addition, it was the first win over the Chiefs since October 17, 2010, where they downed Kansas City by the score of 35-31.

After one possession of give-and-take football between the Texans and the Chiefs in the first quarter, Houston received the ball on the 27-yard line after quarterback Alex Smith fumbles at their own 38-yard line. J.J. Watt quickly recovered for the Texans and gives Houston the ball at the Chiefs’ 27-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage in that set of downs, Brock Osweiler connected with Deandre Hopkins for a 27-yard touchdown pass. Nick Novak converted the kicking extra point to give Houston an early 7-0 lead. Kansas City came back five seconds into the second quarter to kick a 53-yard field goal to cut the Houston lead to 7-3. Ten minutes later, Houston added a field goal to the score, along with a 24-yard effort with 1:21 remaining in the half. Novak booted the first field goal from 32-yards out, and added three additional point to the Texans’ tally off a 24-yarder with 1:21 remaining in the first half.

With half of the game completed, the Texans took a 13-3 lead into the locker room. The score remaining 13-3 through the third quarter, however Kansas City started the fourth quarter with a 43-yard field goal by Cario Santos to cut the Texans’ lead to 13-6. Houston took back their 10-point lead at the 9:34 mark in the fourth quarter when Novak booted a 31-yard field goal to take the score to 16-6. Kansas City added another field goal to their scoring record with a 35-yard attempt with 7:34 remaining in the game to make the score 16-9. Novak added an additional field goal in the 2:56 mark in the fourth quarter and the Chiefs countered with 30-yarder with 49 seconds left in the game.

Osweiler completed 19-of-29 passes for 268 yards and one touchdown. DeAndre Hopkins caught seven of those passes for 113 yards and the single Texans’ touchdown. Will Fuller caught four passes for 104 yards, while Lamar Miller carried the ball 25 yards for 83 yards. Smith completed 20 passes for 186 yards with Spencer Ware carried the ball 10 times for 57 yards.