On November 5, 2023, the Houston Texans trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 37-33 with 46 seconds left at NRG Stadium. Their rookie quarterback, C.J. Stroud, was making his eighth career start. Forty seconds later, he threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Tank Dell, and Houston won 39-37.
Stroud finished 30 of 42 for 470 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. The 470 yards broke the NFL record for a rookie, the 432 Cam Newton threw for against Green Bay in 2011. Stroud did it on a day when his team lost its kicker at halftime and a running back had to kick the go-ahead field goal.
Five touchdown passes, 325 yards after halftime
Stroud had 145 passing yards at halftime, and Tampa Bay led 17-10. He threw for 325 more in the second half. Four different receivers caught his touchdown passes, and the game turned on almost every one of them.
| Time | Touchdown pass | Score after the try |
|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter, 9:14 | Nico Collins, 14 yards | Texans 7-3 |
| 3rd quarter, 12:32 | Noah Brown, 75 yards on first down | Buccaneers 20-16 |
| 3rd quarter, 6:05 | Tank Dell, 29 yards | Buccaneers 23-22 |
| 4th quarter, 14:15 | Dalton Schultz, 9 yards on fourth-and-9 | Texans 30-23 |
| 4th quarter, 0:10 | Tank Dell, 15 yards | Texans 39-37 |
Three Texans went over 100 receiving yards, the first time that had happened in franchise history. Brown caught six passes for 153 yards, Schultz caught 10 for 130, and Dell caught six for 114 with two touchdowns. Houston finished with 496 total yards. The running game managed only 53.
A running back as the kicker
Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked a 50-yard field goal in the second quarter, but a quadriceps injury kept him out of the second half, and running back Dare Ogunbowale took over. He kicked off six times, and the Texans went for two after their next three touchdowns. Stroud’s passes on the first two tries fell incomplete. On the third, after the fourth-down touchdown to Schultz, Stroud ran it in for a 30-23 lead.
Tampa Bay tied it at 30 when Rachaad White ran in from the 1, after Mike Evans caught a 53-yard pass to set it up. Houston answered with a drive to the Buccaneers’ 11, and on fourth-and-11 with 8:48 left, Ogunbowale kicked a 29-yard field goal for a 33-30 lead.
“You lose your kicker, that’s tough. What are you going to do? Your whole game plan changes,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Dare, he stepped up big time for us.”
Two lead changes in the last minute
Baker Mayfield, who finished 21 of 30 for 265 yards and two touchdowns, put Tampa Bay back in front. Starting from his own 39 with 4:27 left, he converted a fourth-and-2 with a 5-yard scramble, and with 49 seconds left he threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cade Otton. After the extra point, the Buccaneers led 37-33.
Houston started at its own 25 with 46 seconds left, needing a touchdown. Other than a spike to stop the clock, every pass Stroud threw on the drive was complete.
| Time | Play | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0:46 | Stroud to Dalton Schultz, 14 yards | Texans timeout at 0:39 |
| 0:39 | Stroud to Schultz, 6 yards | Texans timeout at 0:31 |
| 0:31 | Stroud to Noah Brown, 14 yards | 1st down at TB 41 |
| 0:17 | Stroud spikes the ball | Clock stops at 0:16 |
| 0:16 | Stroud to Tank Dell, 26 yards, out of bounds | 1st down at TB 15 |
| 0:10 | Stroud to Dell, 15 yards | Touchdown, 0:06 left |
Stroud took a knee on the two-point try. Tampa Bay’s last play from its own 25, a completion followed by two laterals, ended with a fumble that Houston recovered. “Give me the ball,” Stroud said of his mindset when the drive began. “Call the plays. I’m going to make the plays.”
What they said
Stroud said offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik put the winning play in on the sideline. “We just had put that in on the sideline,” he said. “I didn’t get to watch it. I just threw it. I just had to take care of the safety.” He added: “I don’t think we can be stopped when we’re on our A-game. It’s a big-time win for us, and as you see, November and December is when you want to be playing your best ball.”
“He’s different,” Dell said of his fellow rookie. “I’ve been saying that since rookie minicamp, since fall camp. C.J. is different, man.” Ryans called it “a very gutsy performance” and said: “It wasn’t all clean, but he gutted it out.”
What came next
The win moved Houston to 4-4. The Texans finished 10-7 and won the AFC South, a year after going 3-13-1, then beat Cleveland 45-14 in the wild-card round before losing 34-10 at Baltimore. Stroud threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in 15 games and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year. Tampa Bay also recovered, finishing 9-8 as NFC South champions and beating Philadelphia in the playoffs.
Three years later, both teams are 2-5. Stroud has 1,877 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and one interception through Week 7, and general manager Nick Caserio said this week that Houston and Stroud were “pretty close” on a contract extension before talks stopped. Dell, who tore ligaments in his left knee in December 2024, caught his first pass in 673 days last Sunday, a 43-yarder from Stroud against the Giants. Mayfield returned from a thumb injury on the same Sunday, a 43-13 Buccaneers win at Carolina.
Related WhyNFL reading: Tank Dell’s 43-yard catch in his first game in 673 days, Nick Caserio on C.J. Stroud’s extension talks and October 29, 2017: Russell Wilson outduels rookie Deshaun Watson.
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