The rookie used to be astounding, and his heroics had been made extra spectacular through the contrasting ineffectiveness of Houston’s dead working recreation. With Dameon Pierce lacking because of an ankle damage, the Texans controlled simply 53 overall dashing yards.
Stroud made up the variation in the course of the air, and he did not simply dink and dunk. He went 6 of 8 for 199 yards and 3 touchdowns on passes of 20-plus air yards, in keeping with Next Gen Stats. He peppered everybody at his disposal with goals, permitting more than one receivers to place up large numbers. Four other WRs stuck a landing. Noah Brown (six catches for 154 yards), Dalton Schultz (10 for 130) and Tank Dell (6 for 114) all eclipsed 100 yards, marking the primary time that 3 gamers have carried out so in franchise historical past.
The exclamation level on all of this got here on Houston’s 40-second, 75-yard force to move forward for just right.
Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield had simply labored some magic of his personal to take a four-point lead, the usage of over 3 mins of clock to go away the Texans with 46 seconds after firing a landing go to tight finish Cade Otton.
That’s when Stroud struck again as soon as once more.
“Honestly, I just try to stay cool, calm and collected,” he stated of his solution to the last-ditch force. “It’s one play at a time, and I told them boys up front, ‘Man, if y’all give me just time, I’ma make them pay.'”
Stroud began the ownership through hitting Schultz two times to pick out up a blended 20 yards, then discovered Brown for 14 ahead of a deep shot to Dell put Houston on Tampa Bay’s 15-yard line.
From there, he went to Dell once more, discovering his fellow rookie between two defenders in the again of the top zone.
Delivering the dagger took simply six performs, and they all, except a spike to kill the clock, had been completions.
It used to be on that force that Stroud broke the single-game rookie passing record. He additionally turned into the one rookie in NFL historical past to throw for 400-plus yards, 4 TDs and no interceptions, in keeping with NFL Research.
“It’s a blessing,” Stroud stated of his data. “The humble me, I mean, I’m going to try to celebrate it tonight. After that, I’m on to Cincinnati. But it’s a blessing. I put in a lot of work throughout the week, and the guys know that. They see it.”
Sunday’s victory used to be the most recent and biggest feat in Stroud’s younger profession, one that most probably places him in the driving force’s seat for the 2023 Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year and has the 4-4 Texans in rivalry in the AFC South a yr got rid of from going 3-13-1.
“I don’t think we can be stopped when we’re on our A-game,” Stroud stated. “It’s a big-time win for us, and as you see, November and December is when you want to be playing your best ball. So now, we just want to upscale and uptrend and trailblaze into the playoffs and hopefully get a chance to win a division.”
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