The Houston Texans committed three straight false start penalties to push themselves out of field goal range on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon, CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans hit the road to take on the Minnesota Vikings in a battle of two undefeated teams on the early campaign. The Texans haven't exactly dominated so far on the young season, but Stroud has continued to look like one of the better young quarterbacks in the league, especially last week vs the Chicago Bears.
Unfortunately, things didn't go so swimmingly for Houston to begin the game on Sunday, as the team committed two turnovers on their own side of the field in the first quarter, including a Stroud interception under 30 seconds into the game.
Later on in the first half, the Texans would shoot themselves in the foot again by committing not one, not two, but three consecutive false start penalties to take themselves from a third and four situation to a third and 19, pushing themselves out of field goal range in the process (via Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team on X, formerly Twitter).
The #Texans just committed three consecutive false starts, going from third-and-4 at the Vikings' 25 to third-and-19 at the Vikings' 40. The crowd noise at US Bank Stadium in Minnesota is absolutely insane.pic.twitter.com/HzhHBiO5be
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 22, 2024
The crowd understandably went bonkers in response, recognizing that their noise level was clearly having an impact on the Texans' ability to hear Stroud call out the signals.
It was an unusual site for a Texans team that has been the epitome of cool, calm, and collected through three games this year, including a win on the road to open up the season vs the Indianapolis Colts in week one.
Stroud in particular generally has a very stoic demeanor, not allowing himself or his Houston teammates to get rattled easily, making the lack of communication on Sunday seem all the more jarring.
In fairness, the Vikings are known to have one of the louder home environments anywhere in the NFL, and their fans have plenty of things to be enthusiastic about after their team's 2-0 start.
Still, that likely won't make the incident any less frustrating for Texans fans.
