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The Houston Texans and their defense arrived at the NFL playoffs on Sunday. And they’re moving on to the division round next weekend.

The Texans turned what had been a roller-coaster season filled with uncertainty into a stirring and convincing 25-12 blowout victory over the Chargers. 

It was a masterpiece of defensive play.

It was almost cringey to watch for Los Angeles and their quarterback Justin Herbert.

HOUSTON – Denico Autry #96 of the Houston Texans celebrates after a sack against the Los Angeles Chargers in the third quarter during the AFC Wild Card Playoffs at NRG Stadium on January 11, 2025. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

Ryans: ‘Who We Want To Be’

“Our defense, they dominated today,” said Texans coach DeMeco Ryans, a former NFL linebacker. “That’s who we want to be. They played our brand of football.”

This is not who the Texans had been throughout the entire season. The unit that was middle of the pack in points allowed during the regular season put on a clinic on how to win in the playoffs.

The pressure on Herbert? Unrelenting. The Texans finished with four sacks and nine quarterback hits.

The front seven shut down the Los Angeles running game, which is what Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh expected to be his team’s strength, as it had been much of the season.

The Chargers averaged a meager 2.8 yards per rush.

“To play playoff football, first thing first, you have to stop the run,” Ryans said. “And that’s where our interior defensive linemen played really great today – stopping the run. I mean, you stop the run, you force teams to have to throw the ball and that’s where our entire d-line cut it loose…”

The Houston secondary similarly had a feast day. The Chargers rarely had receivers open. They collected four interceptions against Herbert. And granted, the last one of those bounced off tight end Will Dissly’s hands into a defender’s grasp.

But it was an interception nonetheless.

HOUSTON – Denico Autry #96 of the Houston Texans sacks Justin Herbert #10 of the Los Angeles Chargers during the third quarter during the AFC Wild Card Playoffs at NRG Stadium on January 11, 2025. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Career Worst Day For Herbert

Herbert threw 3 interceptions on 504 attempts in 17 regular-season games.

He threw 4 interceptions on 32 attempts this game. It was obviously his worst game of the season. It was arguably the worst game of his career because he’d never thrown more than 2 interceptions in his previous 80 NFL games, including the playoffs.

And one of those turned into a 38-yard Pick Six by safety Eric Murray. Two others were collected by All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.

“Proud of our DBs,” Ryans said. “Derek Stingly, he’s been outstanding all year. He steps up again today and gets two picks … Just the way our DBs are playing, it opens up a lot for us defensively. Really proud of our entire group.”

Save a fourth-quarter Ladd McConkey TD catch from Herbert, this was total domination. 

The Texans offense, by the way, was the second-lowest scoring offense in the entire playoffs. But that didn’t matter this game because, again, the defense contributed a TD to make this a two-score win.