Texans snap losing streak by dominating Seahawks
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HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans produced their best performance of the season a few weeks too late.
Matt Schaub threw for 365 yards, including two touchdown passes to Andre Johnson, and Houston snapped a four-game losing streak with a 34-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
Johnson had 11 catches for a season-high 193 yards for the Texans (6-7), still barely alive in the AFC wild-card race. Houston missed chances to move up in the standings over the last month, losing pivotal divisional games to Tennessee, Indianapolis and Jacksonville.
But the Texans dominated the sloppy Seahawks in this one from the first play from scrimmage, when Schaub hooked up with Johnson for a 64-yard touchdown.
"The first play pretty much set the tone for us," Johnson said. "When you have something like that happen, it puts your team in a good spot and guys kind of feed off of it."
The Seahawks (5-8) tried various coverages on Johnson all day, but nothing worked. The three-time Pro Bowl receiver caught 10 passes for 184 yards in the first half and Houston built a 24-7 lead.
"The first half, he tore us up, starting with the first play," Seattle coach Jim Mora said. "He's an outstanding player and Matt Schaub is doing a tremendous job of getting the ball to him."
Schaub completed 24 of 28 passes for 336 yards in the first half, the second-highest first-half total in the NFL this season. By game's end, Schaub had set a single-season franchise record for passing yards with 3,814.
Houston's defense was just as good, manhandling the Seahawks' offensive line and pressuring Matt Hasselbeck. Seattle rushed for 62 yards, Hasselbeck was sacked three times and the Texans made 15 tackles behind the line.
"We played a true, full game," said linebacker DeMeco Ryans, who led the Texans with 10 tackles. "That's what I'm most proud of is that guys kept fighting all four quarters and didn't let up."
Mora ripped his linemen after the game, threatening to change up the unit this week.
"We are going to take an extremely hard look at that over the next two days," Mora said. "I can't promise you there won't be changes. If there are changes that need to be made, we'll make them, even at this late date in the season."
The Texans led 17-0 lead after a near-perfect first quarter.
After Johnson's first TD catch, Hasselbeck threw incomplete on the Seahawks' first play after he was hit hard by Houston linebacker Brian Cushing. Right tackle Ray Willis was then flagged for a false start before Hasselbeck fumbled a snap from center Chris Spencer.
"Our execution right now is just not very good," Hasselbeck said. "It's not good enough, and if you come out and play like that, you're going to get embarrassed."
Seattle punted and Johnson caught two more passes to set up Kris Brown's 29-yard field goal.
Johnson briefly left the game after he was tackled by safety Jordan Babineaux on Houston's next drive. He was back a few snaps later, but Schaub hit Ryan Moats for a 4-yard touchdown with 2:50 left in the quarter.
Houston linebacker Kevin Bentley deflected a punt and Schaub completed another Houston drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Johnson early in the second quarter.
The Seahawks mustered only 13 yards in the first quarter and needed a roughing-the-passer penalty to finally get a first down, with 11:42 left in the half.
"It's the most explosive half of football I've ever been around as a coach," said Houston coach Gary Kubiak. "Defensively, we were exceptional all day long. It's been a rough few weeks, so it was good to win and I liked the effort of the team."
Hasselbeck injured his right shoulder on a hard hit by Ryans on Seattle's first series of the second half. He returned on the next series and finished the game.
Schaub cooled off in the second half and Houston's offense didn't score another touchdown, but Hasselbeck and the Seahawks couldn't get anything going and the Texans maintained their comfortable lead.
Schaub's only big mistake came in the third quarter when he was intercepted by Marcus Trufant. It didn't hurt the Texans though, as Bernard Pollard picked off Hasselbeck two plays later and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown to stretch the lead to 34-7.
