Every week, the Houston Texans look more and more like a playoff team. This week they’re doing it early.
Midway through the first quarter against the Cleveland Browns, the Texans took a 14-0 lead on the strength of two rushing touchdowns: One a 27-yarder from Ben Tate, and one a beautifully drawn up two-yard quarterback draw out of an empty backfield from Matt Schaub.
After the second touchdown, the Browns got a great kickoff return from Josh Cribbs -- only to have Cribbs get a 15-yard penalty for grabbing the facemask of a Texans player trying to tackle him. But they did get a 50-yard field goal from Phil Dawson.
Houston now leads 14-3.
UPDATE: Arian Foster added a 19-yard rushing touchdown to make it 21-3 Texans.
LATER UPDATE: A field goal on the last play of the first half made it 24-3 Texans at halftime.