C.J. Stroud and the Texans Just Had the Most Impressive Win So Far This Season

C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans went to Cincinnati and beat the Bengals on Sunday, and it was the most impressive win of the NFL season so far.

The Texans won the game 30-27 with a walk-off field goal on the game's final play. It was one of five such field goals on the day, most in NFL history, on a wild day of finishes.

But how could a 30-27 victory on the final play of the game be the most impressive win of the season? Let's start at the top.

The Bengals entered as one of the hottest teams in football. Cincinnati had dug itself out of a 1-3 hole and came in on a four-game winning streak. The Bengals dispatched the Seahawks, 49ers, and Bills the last three weeks, and Joe Burrow finally looked healthy and was starting to get some MVP whispers.

Cincinnati was a six-point favorite and looked the part early, taking the opening kickoff and marching right down the field: 10 plays, 75 yards, culminating in a 32-yard touchdown to Trenton Irwin.

7-0 Bengals, exactly the start you'd expect for a home team this scorching hot.

But that was the last we heard from Cincinnati's offense until the fourth quarter.

The must-have app for NFL bettors

The best NFL betting scoreboard

Free picks from proven pros

Live win probabilities for your bets

DOWNLOAD NOW

The Bengals picked up two first downs on their next drive before punting, and they would not pick up another first down until after the midpoint of the third quarter. Cincinnati's next six drives went punt, punt, punt, punt, halftime, punt, with four of punts after three-and-outs.

Houston's defense was doing its job, totally shutting down an MVP-caliber QB and the hottest attack in the league. Will Anderson, Sheldon Rankins, and a dominant defensive front were siphoning off the run, and Derek Stingley Jr. returned after a long absence to a spark the secondary.

The Texans offense showed up, too.

Houston drove inside the 10 on its second drive before failing on fourth down. The Texans got the ball back four plays later and marched right down the field to tie it up at seven. On the next drive, Houston drove deep again before another fumble in scoring territory. The Texans got the ball back four plays later and marched right down the field for a field goal to go up 10-7 into the half.

Houston got the ball to start the second half and marched all the way down the field once more. C.J. Stroud made one of the best plays of his career, evading three pass rushers and throwing a perfect ball to Robert Woods for a TD — but Woods had stepped out of bounds, so Houston settled for another field goal.

Four plays later, the Texans forced another three-and-out, got the ball back, and took just two plays to march right back down the field and into the end zone once again.

20-7 Texans, on the road, against the mighty, vaunted, Super Bowl-contending Bengals.

Drive after drive, a rookie C.J. Stroud took the ball with his young offense — and no WR1 by the way, with Nico Collins sidelined — and drove his team right down the field on the road against a Lou Anarumo defense that has baffled any number of the NFL's best quarterbacks.

ESPN Bet is just days away! Make sure you're ready for all the action with our exclusive ESPN BET promo code as ESPN Bet launches November 14.

Stroud was brilliant.

He finished with 356 yards passing, increasing his season average to 292 YPG. That's now best in the league, ahead of Tua Tagovailoa and on pace for nearly 5,000 yards halfway through his rookie season.

These are not easy throws either. Stroud had an 11.9 ADOT, ripping throws downfield and dropping them into a bucket with precision. Per Next Gen Stats, Stroud threw 19 passes at least 10 air yards downfield and completed 11 for 259 yards, shredding Cincinnati's secondary. He now has 1,513 such yards, over 100 more than any other QB, and is averaging 8.6 EPA per game on those plays alone, a full point more than his next closest competitor.

We've seen play like this before, with a quarterback shredding defenses week after week with precision passes in the Shanahan system. Matt Ryan was the QB, and he won the MVP and came one epic collapse away from leading the Falcons to a Super Bowl win.

Stroud's mobility was on display too. He showed the pocket presence of a 10-year veteran, comfortably extending plays without rushing things or eating sacks, and he ran in another touchdown too.

Of course, Stroud was not perfect. He threw the second interception of his career, nine games in, and lost two fumbles. He missed a late third-down throw up the sideline, too aggressive when a few yards would have clinched the game. But even the rare mistakes did not feel like rookie mistakes as much as two elite MVP-caliber quarterbacks at the top of their game, trading punches, going for the kill.

This felt like a playoff game — and not a first rounder either — but we haven't even gotten to that part yet.

The Bengals battled back, because that's what great teams do.

Cincinnati drove for a field goal, forced a rare punt, then struck quickly on an incredible Burrow throw deep to a streaking Ja'Marr Chase, and suddenly it was 20-17.

You're forgiven if you exhaled at that point, knowing the Bengals were about to finish the job. That's what Super Bowl contenders do at home with all the momentum against a rookie QB and a rookie head coach.

So how did the Texans respond? Easy. Six plays, 75 yards, another TD drive right down the field, back to a double-digit lead.

Stroud hit Noah Brown for another chunk play on the drive. Most folks had never heard of Brown a week ago. He entered the season with under 1,000 yards in five seasons. Now he's caught 153 and 172 yards in back-to-back weeks. Houston wasn't supposed to have a passing game this season because it had no receivers. Now Stroud is turning Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and Noah Brown into household names.

Houston's offense came into the weekend top 10 in DVOA, but Sunday was a huge step forward.

For much of the season, the Texans have struggled on early downs before Stroud bailed them out late. Sunday was a reversal of that, on both ends. The Texans averaged 0.38 EPA per play on early downs, versus -0.08 for Cincinnati. Houston was especially good passing the ball on early downs at 0.64 EPA per play — basically an extra field goal every five pass plays for Stroud.

The Texans had one of their best running games of the season, too. All season, Houston offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik has over-committed to a struggling run game behind a makeshift line. On Sunday that commitment paid off as Devin Singletary racked up 30 carries for 150 yards and a score, chewing up the clock and keeping Burrow on the sidelines.

But Burrow wasn't done yet.

Use our FanDuel Promo Code to get the most out of your NFL action.

Down 27-17, Burrow and the Bengals drove deep into Houston territory before an uncharacteristic mistake, as Burrow was picked off 11 yards from the end zone. A few minutes later the Bengals were driving again when Burrow was intercepted a second time, this one in the end zone. With the clock now under four minutes and a double-digit Texans lead, it looked like a wrap.

That's when Stroud made his one huge mistake, matching Burrow's interception and setting the Bengals up at the two for a quick score that brought the deficit to three. After a Texans three-and-out, Cincinnati moved quickly again. Tyler Boyd scampered 64 yards on a catch-and-run to the seven, but the Texans came up with a huge sack on the following play and held the Bengals to a tying field goal.

You already know what happened from there.

Just like he did against the Bucs last week, C.J. Stroud took the ball with under two minutes and led his team right down the field to victory.

The first play of the drive was a perfectly thrown pass to Dell but bounced off his hands, so Houston ran the ball the following play to bleed the clock and make sure it wouldn't give the ball back too quickly to Burrow. Half the clock had ticked off before Stroud snapped it again on third down, with one shot to save the game before overtime.

Bang! Stroud ripped it 25 yards up the seam to Dalton Schultz, then hurried his team to the line and completed another sideline pass to stop the clock.

Bang! Another 22 yards to Noah Brown, all the way to the Bengals 20, and that was that. Houston ran the clock down, called timeout, and trotted the newly signed Matt Ammendola onto the field for the game-winning field goal.

30-27, Texans.

Game, blouses.

The game ultimately came down to the final play, but this was no fluke.

The Texans racked up 544 yards of offense, 164 more than Cincinnati. Houston averaged 7.4 yards per play. The Texans won on the road against a Super Bowl contender, despite losing the turnover battle 3-to-2.

Stroud was awesome, but so was the entire team.

The defense gave up three big plays to Chase, Boyd, and Irwin but otherwise held Burrow to 187 yards on 37 passes. The Texans sacked Burrow four times and intercepted him twice in the red zone. And they did it all without Jimmie Ward and with a secondary held together by duct tape and bobby pins.

For my money, this was the most impressive win of the NFL season thus far.

To win like that, on the road, backs against the wall, with a young team missing several of its most important players, rookie QB, rookie coach and all, playing a scorching hot Super Bowl contender that had just beaten three of the best teams in the league — that's a statement win and then some.

What other win this season measures up?

Baltimore dominated Seattle and Detroit, but both of those wins came at home against inferior QBs. San Francisco demolished Dallas. Buffalo crushed Miami. Both of those wins came at home, too. The biggest road win of the season before Sunday might have come in the season opener when the Lions went to Kansas City and beat the champs, but that was without Travis Kelce.

Houston went toe-to-toe with Joe Burrow and the mighty Bengals, stared Cincinnati right in the eye, and never blinked.

If anything, you might argue that the best road win of the season before Sunday also came from Houston, way back in September when the 0-2 Texans went to Jacksonville, a team we now know is one of the best in the league, and dropped 37 points on a defense that entered this weekend No. 2 in DVOA.

That was the first win for Stroud and DeMeco Ryans, and the Texans have not slowed down since. They've now won five of their last seven, and both losses came by two points on a walk-off field goal on the final play. Add in a little kicking luck and the Texans could be 7-2!

But don't expect Houston to add to its impressive road wins anytime soon.

Maximize your NFL action with our bet365 bonus code.

The Texans won't leave Houston for another road game until December 10. They also have only two games left against teams .500 or better. One of them comes in two weeks against the division-leading Jaguars, a team Houston now trails by just one game, with head-to-head tiebreaker already in hand.

If the playoffs started today, the Texans would be a playoff team. They'd beat out these Bengals for the last spot in the conference — another handy head-to-head tiebreaker against a juggernaut team that is in more trouble right now than you think, with a huge game upcoming in Baltimore Thursday night.

C.J. Stroud is here, and so are the Texans. And while everyone else in the AFC is beating each other up, the Texans' schedule could help them coast to the finish, just as Stroud is blossoming before our eyes.

We entered the day with one sleeper MVP on the field and might have left it with two.

The Houston Texans are here, and they're here to stay.