Texans handle Colts, clinch second division title in row

HOUSTON -- The Houston Texans now own the AFC South, and they have a message for the rest of the NFL:

Last week's debacle against New England was not the real Texans.

The real Texans, they claim, clinched the division for the second straight year with a 29-17 victory over Indianapolis.

"A lot of people were wondering how we were going to respond," Andre Johnson said. "I think a lot of people doubted us after what happened last week. We (felt) like we had to show people what we were really about."

They believe they did so against the Colts, a team that dominated the division for years before Houston's recent rise.

But Sunday's celebrations were more subdued than last year's. This time the Texans expected to win the division, and have much bigger goals ahead.

"It's awesome," J.J. Watt said. "But there's a lot more fun ahead, so I hope everybody is not celebrating too early."

Johnson gained 151 yards receiving and a touchdown, Bryan Braman had a special teams score on a blocked punt, and Shayne Graham kicked five field goals.

The Texans (12-2) grabbed their first AFC South title last season after the Colts nosedived without injured quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning is gone to Denver and rookie Andrew Luck couldn't do much against the inspired Houston defense.

The Colts (9-5) had won three straight games and needed a win to clinch a playoff berth a year after going 2-14 in 2011. Before that, they took the division seven times since Houston entered the league in 2002.

"It was a tough loss for us in that we came here with one idea and that was to win the division, and we're not going to win the division -- they did it," Indianapolis interim coach Bruce Arians said.

Thanks in great part to three sacks from Watt, Houston bounced back six days after the 42-14 loss to New England on national television. The Texans will have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs if they win out.

Luck threw for 186 yards with two touchdowns in the return to his hometown. He had led the Colts to a rookie-record six wins on drives in the fourth quarter or overtime this season, and he got the Colts within six points late in the third quarter.

"We came here to win, not put up a respectable showing," Luck said. "We'll move on to next week and hopefully get better."

Houston's defense shut Luck down after he made it close, and the Texans used Arian Foster to eat up the clock. Foster ran for a season-high 165 yards to leave him with 1,313 yards rushing, giving him his third straight year with at least 1,200.

"It's not really that we bounced back," Foster said. "It's that we played the football that we know we're capable of playing. We feel we're a team that if we play how we know we can ... it's going to be hard for us to get beat."

Watt increased his AFC-leading sack total to 19 1/2 -- the NFL record for a season is 22 1/2 -- and finished with 10 tackles. He also forced a fumble for the third straight game.

"I don't even know the stats," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. "But it seemed like every time I looked up, he was making a play."

Luck was sacked five times playing behind a makeshift offensive line missing center Samson Satele (ankle) and right tackle Winston Justice (biceps).

Johnson, who has 11,008 yards receiving in his career, scored on a 3-yard reception to make it 10-0 in the first quarter. The Texans didn't score a touchdown on offense after that, but were helped by Braman's special teams effort.

Braman blocked his second punt of the season, recovered it and returned it 8 yards for his first career touchdown to make it 20-3 just before halftime.

Vick Ballard had 60 yards rushing on a Colts drive that ended with an 8-yard touchdown reception by Dwayne Allen to cut Houston's lead to 23-17 in the third quarter. Ballard finished with a career-high 105 yards rushing.

Houston couldn't do anything on its next drive and punted. But Indy sputtered, and interim coach Bruce Arians even drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a punt, giving Houston the ball at the Colts 39.

Graham added a 46-yard field goal to push the lead to 26-17 and made his fifth field goal with about a minute left.

Rookie T.Y. Hilton and Luck connected on a 61-yard touchdown pass just before halftime.

Watt's forced fumble on Mewelde Moore on the Houston 1 was recovered by Tim Dobbins early in the second quarter, robbing the Colts of points. And the Colts stalled inside the red zone again and had to settle for Adam Vinatieri's 26-yard field goal to cut Houston's lead to 10-3.

The Texans had set the tone as they got to Luck early, sacking him twice on the Colts' second drive. Antonio Smith got to him first, and Watt put a move on backup tackle Jeff Linkenbach and took him down for a 15-yard loss.

On offense, Johnson was dominant. He put Houston up 10-0 when he waltzed into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown reception. Johnson kept things going earlier in the drive when he caught a pass, lost it and then grabbed it again just before it touched the ground for a 10-yard gain on third-and-9.

Notes Luck needs 74 yards to break Cam Newton's rookie yards passing record of 4,051 yards. Dobbins has recovered four fumbles this season, a franchise record. Braman's two blocked punts this season are a single-season franchise record.

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Mark Bavaro: Matt Bahr was 'kind of out of it' when kicking the FG that won '90 NFC title

Posted: 04:23 PM ET May 16, 2012

By Josh Katzowitz | NFL Blogger

If you watch the video below, you'll see Matt Bahr kick a 42-yard field goal to beat the 49ers in the 1990 NFC title game to send the Giants to Super Bowl XXV. You'll see New York coach Bill Parcells hug fellow coaches with a big smile on his face. You'll see Giants players rush the field in ecstasy. You'll see his teammates encircle Bahr and embrace him in triumph.

But what you won't see is how Bahr prepared to kick one of the biggest attempts of his career. And if Mark Bavaro is to be believed, that's probably a good thing, because according to the former Giants tight end, Bahr -- who had suffered a concussion making a tackle earlier in the game -- didn't know where he was before he got set to kick.

"Matt Bahr, when he kicked the winning field goal against San Francisco in 1990, I don't think he knew where he was," Bavaro told the Newark Star Ledger. "He'd tackled somebody on a kickoff return earlier in the game, and he was kind of out of it.

"Steve DeOssie had to kind of, actually, guide him on the field and line it up. But you know, that was regular stuff back then. Matt was a great guy, a tough guy, and we certainly appreciated him coming out and doing that for us. But I don't think that stuff happens today."

As more players continue to sue the NFL on the matter of concussions, these stories, I imagine, will be much more common. And while it's impressive Bahr made the field goal (he had four others on the day, as well), let's hope a kicker never has to be put in that position again.

For more NFL news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnNFL on Twitter, and subscribe to our Pick-6 Podcast and NFL newsletter. You can follow Josh Katzowitz on Twitter here: @joshkatzowitz.

Tags: New York Giants, NFL

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Giants beat Jets, keep East title hopes alive

CBSSports.com wire reports
Dec. 24, 2011

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Rex Ryan was brash and confident all week, insisting his Jets were the kings of New York.

Well, the Giants shut him up in a big way -- taking the city bragging rights and setting up an even more important showdown with the Dallas Cowboys next weekend with a 29-14 victory Saturday.

"I hate to use that cliche, but this is a huge one," left tackle David Diehl said. "This is about the city, the city of New York and what team wants to be responsible. They have talked all week and said what they wanted to say. From Day 1, they're our big brother and other stuff. We went out there and played our game and showed whose stadium this is."

Ryan said the Jets were the better team the last two years, based on their consecutive trips to the AFC Championship Game and the Giants missing the postseason. Tom Coughlin responded by saying, "Talk is cheap. Play the game."

It was the Giants who did.

"They were the better team today, and they're the better team this year," a humbled Ryan said. "Clearly, I was wrong."

The Giants kept their postseason hopes alive, helped by Victor Cruz setting two franchise receiving records and Ahmad Bradshaw running for two touchdowns. While neither team looked much like playoff material, the Giants (8-7) are now in position to win the NFC East with a victory at home next Sunday against Dallas.

"Given everything that was at stake, and all the noise that has been coming out of Florham Park," Giants co-owner John Mara said, "yeah, it means a little more."

Running back Brandon Jacobs said he had an exchange with Ryan after the game in which the coach approached him, used an expletive and said, "Wait till we win the Super Bowl."

Added Jacobs: "And I told him I'll punch him in the face. I told him out of all these Giants players on this team you're talking to the wrong one. And that was that."

Ryan acknowledged that he and Jacobs "had a private conversation. He doesn't like me; I respect him."

The back-and-forth went on even in the hours before the game, when Jacobs and kicker Lawrence Tynes both removed black curtains placed by the Jets over the Giants' Super Bowl logos. The Jets said it was simply their standard practice to cover those logos for every one of the team's home games, regardless of opponent, because it is the players' entrance.

"We knew early what we were going to get no matter what happened as soon as he had the opportunity to run his big fat mouth," Jacobs said of Ryan's boasts throughout the week.

Meanwhile, the Jets' playoff hopes took a devastating hit, and at 8-7 they'll need to win at Miami next week and get major help from several other teams. They have to hope for Cincinnati and Tennessee to lose, and have either Oakland or Denver lose.

"I mean, we don't deserve to control our own destiny," Jets linebacker Bart Scott said. "We haven't played good enough football to do that. We need to try to finish strong, but if you don't make it to the playoffs, you've got nobody to blame but yourself."

Cruz, who had three catches for 164 yards, broke Amani Toomer's single-season mark for yards receiving -- and the team's record for longest touchdown reception, a 99-yarder that gave the Giants the lead for good in the second quarter.

"It's just amazing," Cruz said, "and to beat the Jets in the process is added incentive."

It was a brutal game at times, with both offenses sluggish and prone to mistakes. The Jets were also penalized 10 times, including a late hit call on Aaron Maybin, who plowed into D.J. Ware in the fourth quarter -- a play on which Coughlin was injured out of bounds. The Giants coach needed to be checked out on the bench briefly before limping back to the sideline.

"Never better," a smiling Coughlin said when asked how he was feeling.

Eli Manning finished just 9 of 27 for 225 yards. Mark Sanchez completed 30 passes on a career-high 59 attempts but put up only 258 yards and was intercepted twice. The Jets were also a brutal 4 for 21 on third-down conversions.

"I left a lot of completions out there," Sanchez said.

The sloppiest stretch came midway through the fourth quarter with wild swings of momentum.

The Giants thought they had stopped the Jets on fourth down, but a pass interference call gave them new life. Plaxico Burress -- playing against the Giants in the regular season for the first time since they cut him in 2009 and he served a 20-month prison sentence on a gun charge - thought he had scored a touchdown, but offensive pass interference called it back. The Giants thought they'd recovered a fumble by Sanchez, but officials reversed the call on a challenge, saying his arm was going forward.

The Giants got their turnover moments later, though, when Sanchez fumbled the snap in the end zone.

The Jets weren't done. David Harris intercepted Manning's pass that tipped off Hakeem Nicks' hands, and the Jets had another apparent fumble by Sanchez reversed on review.

On third-and-12 from the 13, Sanchez scrambled for 11 yards -- and Antrel Rolle was called for holding, putting the ball at the 1. Sanchez dived into the end zone, making it 20-14 with 7:17 left.

But the Jets wouldn't get any closer. Chris Canty sacked Sanchez for a safety, and after an onside free kick by the Jets was recovered by the Giants, Bradshaw had a 19-yard TD run with 2:04 left.

"It's real sad right now," Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said. "We needed this win. We made some mistakes and they outplayed us."

Cruz's 99-yard catch - the longest scoring pass in team history -- came with the Giants in dire straits facing third-and-10 from the 1. Manning, standing in the back of the end zone, zipped a pass to Cruz, who dodged tackle attempts by Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson and took off down the right sideline. Eric Smith was the only one with a chance to get him, but Cruz outran him to give the Giants a 10-7 lead with 2:12 left in the opening half.

It was also the longest offensive play against the Jets in team history.

Now the Jets will prepare for the Dolphins -- and keep their fingers crossed.

"If the gates open," wide receiver Santonio Holmes said, "we're going to walk right through them."

Notes

DE Jason Pierre-Paul had two of the Giants' five sacks, giving him 15 1/2 this season. Jets S Brodney Pool said he experienced migraine symptoms during the game, worsened after a hard hit in the third quarter when Bradshaw slammed into him. He said he was fine. Jets LB Garrett McIntyre hurt his knee covering the opening kickoff, and there was no immediate word on the injury.

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Coughlin's Giants quiet the noise, move win away from division title

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Finally, a response.

After listening to the New York Jets insult their defense, their quarterback, their head coach and their integrity, the Giants fired back with a 29-14 victory that is bigger, much bigger than who owns New York. Nope, this one was all about who survives the season and goes to the playoffs, and the Giants could with a defeat of Dallas here next weekend.

Of course, the Jets could, too, if they played as well as they talked last week. But it didn't happen, and now they're going to need a lifeline to get in.

That won't upset anyone on the Giants after what they heard last week ... or what they witnessed Saturday when the Super Bowl LXII logo outside their locker room was covered. Needless to say, that didn't go over so well.

"I won't mention what I thought," coach Tom Coughlin said.

And why should he? He didn't mention what he thought when the Jets' Santonio Holmes spoke last week about the holes he and his teammates would exploit in the Giants' secondary ... or what he thought when Darrelle Revis said he didn't know who Victor Cruz was ... or what he thought when Jets coach Rex Ryan said he didn't give a flip for Coughlin and considered his team better than the Giants this year and the last three years.

"Anything to say to Rex now?" Giants running back Brandon Jacobs was asked.

"Yeah," he said. "He needs to shut up."

Oh.

According to Jacobs, he and the Jets head coach had a brief run-in after the game, with Jacobs making his suggestion to Ryan and the Jets' coach responding by telling Jacobs -- at least, this is how he put it -- "to shut the 'F' up." I think you can imagine how that went down.

"I told him of all the Giants on this football team you're talking to the wrong one," Jacobs said. "I told him I would punch him in the head."

Yeah, well, there's no need. The Giants just did. The loss cripples the Jets, while it gives the Giants ... and their beleaguered head coach ... hope that maybe -- just maybe -- there is a Santa Claus. I mean, they weren't supposed to win this one, and they weren't supposed to survive another second-half collapse.

Only now they're one victory from their first playoff spot in three years and, presumably, a vote of confidence for Coughlin.

"He's never going to give up," team president and co-owner John Mara said of Coughlin. "He seems to be at his best when everybody puts his back against the wall. But he's got to do it next week, too."

Exactly. Because if the Giants can't close out the season with a victory ... and they stunk in this stadium just last week vs. Washington ... then Saturday's victory is virtually meaningless.

OK, so they beat their outspoken neighbors, but big deal if it doesn't get you to the playoffs. That was Coughlin's message last week during practices where he said players seemed to have "more energy," "more enthusiasm" and "greater speed" than he'd seen in weeks. One reason: They knew what was ahead of them, with Coughlin offering a quick course in math.

Two wins, he told them, equal one division title. Simple as that. Close out the Jets and Dallas, and you win the NFC East.

So the Giants took the first step, shutting down Mark Sanchez and the Jets so completely that they never had a play longer than 15 yards and misfired on 17 of 21 third-down conversions. Yeah, they made it close midway through the fourth quarter, but that was only after an Eli Manning interception on a play too stupid to get into. Let's just say the Giants opened the door, and the Jets finally walked in.

But that was it. The Giants' defense looked like it was supposed to look, sacking Sanchez five times, intercepting him twice, recovering a fumble in the end zone and producing a game-winning safety. After listening to their coach last week remind them that "talk is cheap, play the game," the Giants responded as they were told.

They played their game.

So they weren't all that good on offense. Big deal. They didn't make mistakes. Plus, they did make the only plays that mattered -- with Victor Cruz's 99-yard touchdown catch atop that list. I guarantee you Revis knows who he is now because it was Cruz's catch-and-run that put the Jets behind for good.

"I knew they were going to fold the way they've been playing," Jacobs said. "I knew they were going to be the ones to crack because I don't think they have what it takes to beat us."

So we know that now. What we don't know is which Giants team shows up next weekend -- the club that was booed in its loss to Washington or the club that took it to the Jets? I mean, as big as this victory was, it still was only the second in the past seven games for Big Blue. Moreover, it was accomplished with Manning completing a season-low nine passes.

But that's where there is hope, too. Despite Manning's shortcomings ... despite the Jets' bravado ... despite the Jets' head games ... the Giants prevailed by plugging those leaks that Holmes talked about. And that's critical if this team is to go anywhere now or in January. Dallas hammered the Giants' defense in a loss earlier this month, and others have, too. Only the Jets weren't one of those others, and maybe, just maybe, this is the start of something new.

"I know how good we are," said cornerback Corey Webster, "and I know how good we can be when everybody puts this together. Enough was enough. We eliminated a lot of big plays. We didn't have any mental busts, and that goes a long way to getting a 'W.'"

Of course, this wasn't any W. This was the Jets, but this was much more than that. This was another test of survival for a team that was supposed to be finished ... but isn't.

"I was proud of how our players kept their emotions under control," said Mara. "They wanted this one all week."

So did Mara.

"Let's just say I wanted this game," he said.

Let's just say his coach needed it.

"He wanted this game badly, too," Mara said.

He should. His job and his team's future might've depended on it. Now, the Giants are down to a one-game season, with that one game here next Sunday. That is how Coughlin envisioned it, and this is how it will be. It is, as Coughlin said, the response he was looking for from his players, and it is the response he received.

"Does this victory make a statement?" he was asked.

"We won the game," said Coughlin, "and it keeps us in the playoffs. It keeps us in the hunt with destiny in our hands. That is the only way to look at it."

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