There won’t be any speculation about the Texans turning back to Tom Savage for their divisional-round date against either the Patriots or Chiefs. Houston will stick with Brock Osweiler next weekend, Bill O’Brien said postgame (via Mark Berman of Fox 26, on Twitter), halting a potential quarterback controversy on the heels of the Texans’ first playoff win in four years.
Osweiler lost his job late in the regular season to Savage but was summoned back into duty after the younger backup suffered a concussion in Week 17. The maligned free agent signing received his first playoff start today and completed 14-of-25 passes for 168 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another in the Texans’ 27-14 win.
Savage stepped in initially for the slumping Osweiler and gave the Texans a spark during their Week 15 and Week 16 victories over the Jaguars and Bengals, helping the franchise secure its second straight AFC South title. He threw for 260 yards against the Jags but hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass this season and remained in concussion protocol leading up to Houston’s wild-card game. Had the third-year passer not encountered concussion trouble, he likely would have been the starter against Oakland.
Instead, the quarterback who has been benched late in each of the past two regular seasons will make his another playoff start and continue an attempt to live up to the four-year, $72MM deal he signed this offseason.
It would be kind of awesome to see Brock lead the Texans to the super bowl after the amount of hate he has received this season even though the chances are very small. It’s too bad Watt isn’t healthy on this scary defense.
If they play New England it’s going to be a butt whooping for Houston. It will be bad…Pats smoked them with their 3rd string QB. They got lucky with Oakland losing Carr or would have been very different.