Heading into the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, where a win was desperately needed and a loss would eliminate any chances of making the playoffs, Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans knew he had to find some extra motivation for his team.
On the outside, the Texans had little to no chance of winning a game with key starters such as quarterback C.J. Stroud, offensive lineman Tytus Howard and Ed Ingram, and defensive back Jalen Pitre sidelined due to injuries.
Ryans, a boxing enthusiast, dug into the archives and found the exact motivational video he needed to convey his message perfectly. He showed his team an old clip from a 2000 fight between Danny Williams and Mark Potter that ended in a sixth-round knockout of Potter by Williams.
While knockouts are impressive in boxing, you might wonder why Ryans didn’t show his team knockouts from boxing legends such as Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, two of the most popular boxers known for their knockout power?
Well, the answer is simple. Williams went two rounds with a dislocated right shoulder before knocking out Potter with a left uppercut and winning the fight.
On Sunday, the Texans had the equivalent of a dislocated right shoulder for three quarters against the Jaguars before pulling out a thrilling 36-29 victory to improve to 4-5 on the season.
“I talked to the guys last night about it’s going to be a heavyweight fight, and we got to keep throwing punches no matter how it looks,” said Ryans during his postgame press conference. “It may look rough, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t want anybody to blink. I wanted everybody to continue to press forward, to keep punching, and that’s what they did.”
Houston started the game with an interception by backup quarterback Davis Mills. An unnecessary roughness penalty on defensive lineman Denico Autry kept a drive alive for the Jags, which led to a field goal. On the ensuing kickoff, defensive back Tremon Smith fumbled on the return, giving Jacksonville great field position.
They scored six plays later on a pass from Trevor Lawrence to wide receiver Parker Washington as the Jaguars took an early 10-0 lead that would turn into a 17-0 lead after Washington returned a punt for 73 yards.
The Texans managed to generate some offensive momentum throughout the game.
Still, it wasn’t enough to give them any hope of winning as they found themselves trailing 29-10 with under thirteen minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Yet, when the path to victory seemed to be the darkest, Houston harkened back to watching the clip of Danny Williams’s knockout, and they used that for motivation to score 26 points to end the game, marking the second-largest comeback in franchise history.
“He [Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans] told us to keep fighting,” said Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair. “The message for us was just keep swinging, and all day we just kept thinking about that.”
After a rough first half, Davis Mills settled down and played with complete poise in the fourth quarter, throwing two touchdowns and leading a 14-play, 93-yard game-winning drive, which he finished with a 14-yard touchdown run to give Houston its first lead of the game.
“I think the whole team had faith we were going to win that game the entire time,” said Mills, who finished the game with 292 yards passing, two touchdowns, and an interception. “Like I said before, I think our team is very confident in our own abilities. We have a lot of players who can make plays. We just needed to get things clicking.”
The Texans’ defense knew that to have any chance of a comeback, they would need to buckle down and stop Jacksonville’s offense, which would give Mills more opportunities to score.
They held the Jaguars to just 11 total yards in the fourth quarter and limited Lawrence to -17 yards passing as the pressure from edge rushers Danielle Hunter, who finished the game with 3.5 sacks, and Will Anderson Jr., who had a sack and a forced fumble, never allowed Lawrence to get comfortable in the pocket.
Although Houston’s defense is top-ranked in many statistical categories this season, its five losses have all been decided by just one score, with several games coming down to a single play by the defense to clinch the victory. On Sunday, it looked as if the Texans were headed down that same path.
After Mills’ touchdown, the offense failed on its two-point conversion attempt, leaving the door open for Jacksonville’s superstar kicker Cam Little, whose range is anywhere from 70 yards and in on field goal attempts, an opportunity to win the game.
The Jaguars moved closer to his range after Lawrence scrambled out of the pocket for 21 yards, a sight the Texans defense had seen in previous games against the Tampa Buccaneers and Denver Broncos that led to losses.
On the next play, he completed a pass to Washington for 12 yards to Houston’s 42-yard line, but a hands-to-the-face penalty on the offense negated it. With seven seconds remaining, the only way for Jacksonville to win was with a Hail Mary touchdown pass or a penalty that gave them one more play.
Yet, the Texans’ defense would not let their fourth-quarter dominance or Mills’ late-game heroics be wasted on another late-game collapse as Anderson beat a double team to get to Lawrence and force a fumble that ended in the hands of defensive lineman Sheldon Rankins, who rumbled 32 yards for the touchdown as time expired, as the team celebrated in the end zone.
“I start Will [Anderson] start to flush him [Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback Trevor Lawrence], so I am just moving towards the ball,” said Rankins after the game. “Will gets the ball out, and it lands right in my hands, and the athlete I me takes over. At no point was I thinking about going down, not at all.
“The game was over, so I wanted to see what I could get, and I got it all. It was a crazy play in the moment. Nowhere in the back of my mind or the realm of possibility was I thinking a touchdown in that moment. But once the ball landed in my hands, I let God handle the rest.”
With the Texans’ playoff hopes still alive, maybe the next motivational boxing match Ryan should show his team is the October 1974 “Rumble In The Jungle,” which featured Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman.