With their remote playoff hopes on the line against a Ravens team positioning for the postseason, the Texans put on a dominant defensive display & posted a 25-13 victory. Case Keenum, their 3rd starting quarterback of the season after he was signed earlier in the week off the practice squad of the St. Louis Rams, won an NFL game for the 1st time in his career.
The Texans sit at 8-7 heading into the final week of the season, keeping their faint hopes alive that they can beat Jacksonville & squeak into that final postseason slot with a 9-7 record.
The formula for the playoffs is to beat the Jaguars plus have losses by the Ravens to the Browns & the Chargers to the Chiefs. All of those things are not likely to happen, but it would not be a shock either if they all occurred.
As always, here are the 6 observations from the game that have been dubbed the Pick 6 …
The defense hits on all cylinders to rattle Flacco & the Ravens
A week after the Texans’ defense kept the Texans in the game with stellar play vs. the top-ranked Colts’ offense, they followed up with another sensational performance vs. Joe Flacco & the 
Ravens’ offense. Facing their former head coach, Gary Kubiak, who is the offensive coordinator for the Ravens, the Texans seemed to know what was coming from the playbook the way they tore apart the Ravens.
The Texans defense held the Ravens to 211 yards of total offense, including 33 yards rushing. Flacco has been good this year under Kubiak, but was all out of sorts vs. the Texans defensive pressure, particularly from the front seven, and threw 3 interceptions, including 2 by Kareem Jackson. The Ravens had several 3 & outs & were only 4 of 15 on 3rd down & 0 of 2 on 4th down, ending with just 25:02 in time of possession.
It was an all-out dominant performance, and a big reason why the Texans still have playoff hopes with all the quarterback turmoil they’ve endured.
Case Keenum finally gets a win in a Texans uniform
For all the Case Keenum hysteria last season, he was never able to earn a victory as a starter in his eight games. Flash forward to 2014, when Keenum was cut after a subpar preseason & ended up on the St. Louis Rams’ practice squad.
With the injuries to Ryan Fitzpatrick & Tom Savage, Texans’ head coach Bill O’Brien had to reach into his bag of tricks to find a starting QB & ended up signing Case Keenum & inserting him in the starting lineup. While Case Keenum did not play spectacularly, he did well enough to engineer the team to victory. He was 20 for 42 for 185 yards & 1 interception, leading an offense that amassed 313 yards on the day.
Keenum was certainly helped by Arian Foster, who rushed for 96 yards & even threw a TD to the TE, C.J. Fiedorowicz, and an offensive line that protected him well. The Texans had to settle for a lot of field goals after failing to execute in the red zone, but it did not come back to haunt them with the defense playing so well.
Randy Bullock has a record setting day
On the one hand, connecting on 6 field goals usually means the offense is not capitalizing on opportunities to 
score touchdowns. On the other hand, kicking 6 field goals means 18 points are on the board & a team is well on the way to a victory. Randy Bullock kicked field goals from 33, 39, 20, 30, 25, and 35 yards, setting a Texans’ franchise record for field goals in a game.
Even if the Texans were unable to muster up much in the way of touchdowns, it is still quite an individual feat for Bullock to contribute that many points with his leg. Randy Bullock now has made 30 out of 35 field goals this season, proving his consistency after an up & down 2013.
The takeaways continue as Kareem Jackson picks off two passes
There was a time that Kareem Jackson was more criticized on local talk radio than a do-nothing congressman. It is a credit to him how far he has come since his rookie season, and how he is 
turned into one of the better defensive backs in the league. On Sunday vs. the Ravens, he picked off 2 passes & increased the Texans league leading takeaway number to 34 for the season.
Romeo Crennel has transformed the defense, and Kareem Jackson, Johnathan Joseph, Kendrick Lewis, D.J. Swearinger & A.J. Bouye have all been beneficiaries in the secondary with opportunistic picks in recent weeks.
The defensive line has a standout performance
It goes without saying that J.J. Watt was his usual outstanding self vs. the Ravens, but others helped him out on the defensive line. Watt finished with 8 tackles & 4 hits on the quarterback, and had a sack that left him with the all-time Texans franchise career record of 54 sacks.
Jared Crick also had 5 tackles, a tipped pass, and a sack, and teamed with Watt, Whitney Mercilus, Brian Cushing, Brooks Reed, and others in the front 7 to harass Joe Flacco throughout the game. When Antonio Smith left as a free agent at the end of last season, attention was turned to who would help out on the defensive line, and Crick has been the guy. Entering the last game of the season, he has flourished in Crennel’s scheme with 28 solo tackles & 27 assists.
Also, having nose tackle Ryan Pickett in the middle has been a big reason the Texans have been able to stop opponents’ running games, including the excellent effort to hold the Ravens to 33 yards on Sunday & 1,000 yard rusher & former Texan Justin Forsett to just 19 yards on 10 carries.
The offensive line picks up the slack against a stout Ravens D
Considering the Ravens had just sacked Jacksonville QB Blake Bortles 8 times in their previous game & Elvis Dumervil came into the game with a Baltimore Ravens’ record 16 sacks, expectations were the Ravens D would tee off on a QB making his first start for the Texans in 2014.
Credit the offensive line for protecting Case Keenum, allowing him time to deliver the ball & not get sacked once. The OL also opened up holes for the running game, led by Foster’s 96 yards.
The Texans lost right guard Brandon Brooks to an ankle injury, and moved Derek Newton to right guard & reserve Tyson Clabo to right tackle. It is a testament to how much Newton has gotten better this year with the way he was able to deliver a solid performance at guard, in addition to his improved play all season at tackle. Bill O’Brien must have known something when he said Newton “had a very good offseason” & named him the starting tackle in June, because that confidence has resulted in an upturn in his play.
