{"id":93901,"date":"2025-12-27T14:28:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T21:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93901"},"modified":"2025-12-27T20:35:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:35:53","slug":"chargers-vs-houston-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93901","title":{"rendered":"Chargers Draw a Wild Card in Loss to Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Omarion Hampton had a five-yard touchdown run to bring the Chargers to within four. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Inglewood) – Houston jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead and held on to beat the Chargers 20-16 Saturday before 73, 066 fans at SoFi Stadium. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

The Chargers had already secured a playoff spot but with the loss Saturday the Denver Broncos clinched the AFC West and assured that the Chargers will go in as a wild card team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chargers had two golden opportunities in the red zone to score in the second quarter but came away with no points after an interception and a missed field goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston struck first when on the third play of the game C.J. Stroud hit Jayden Higgins on a 75-yard touchdown pass. Higgins was wide open after getting behind the Chargers secondary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Chargers punted the Texans struck gold again. They needed just four plays to go 72 yards. Stroud again fired a long scoring strike as he connected with Jaylin Noel in the corner of the endzone for a 43-yards to put Houston up 14-0 with 9:17 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chargers were struggling on offense early but finally got on the board in the second quarter when Derwin James intercepted Stroud and returned it to the Houston 37-yard line. That set up a 27-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker with 6:10 left in the quarter to make it 14-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oronde Gadsden II hauled in Herbert’s lone touchdown pass. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then the Chargers failed to cash in on two consecutive series. Herbert found Quentin Johnston on a 60-yard pass down inside the Houston 15-yard line, but on the next play Azeez Al-Shaair picked off a Herbert pass at the one-yard line to end the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the next series Elijah Molden intercepted Stroud with a diving catch at the Houston 32-yard line and the Chargers were in business again. The Chargers were stopped at the 15-yard line and Dicker came on but missed a 32-yard field goal attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texans took a 14-3 lead into halftime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third quarter Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked a 41- yard field goal with 6:04 left to extend the Texans lead to 17-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Justin Herbert threw one touchdown pass and was the Chargers’ leading rusher on the afternoon. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later in the third a 24-yard run by Herbert down to the Houston 16-yard line set up the first Chargers touchdown. Oronde Gadsden hauled in a one-yard pass from Herbert to cap an 11-play, 64-yard drive and LA was down 17-10 with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texans answered with a 44-yard field goal by Fairbairn to make it 20-10 with 6:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the next possession the Chargers marched 75 yards on seven plays. Omarion Hampton finished it with a five-yard touchdown run with 3:37 left in the contest. Dicker missed the extra point to leave the score at 20-16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chargers used all of their timeouts but the Texans were able to pick up a first down and burn out the clock to get the victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Chargers Herbert completed 21 of 32 for 236 yards and a touchdown with the interception. He also led the team in rushing with 37 yards on six carries. Johnston had five receptions for 98 yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Houston Stroud threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns with two picks. Woody Marks rushed for 71 yards on 19 carries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chargers dropped to 11-5 with the loss while the Texans improved to 11-5 and are in second place in the AFC South behind Jacksonville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H 14 0 3 3 20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LA 0 3 7 6 16 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Inglewood) – Houston jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead and held on to beat the Chargers 20-16 Saturday before 73, 066 fans at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93901"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93942,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93901\/revisions\/93942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}