SI

Texans' Perfectly Executed Blocked Punt Somehow Results in Disappointment

Sometimes, that's the way the ball bounces.

Liam McKeone

Texans block Chargers punt
Texans block Chargers punt / NFL on CB
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The first quarter of the first NFL playoff game of the year did not offer much as far as highlights go. The Houston Texans did, however, offer at least one in the form of a perfectly-executed punt block. Unfortunately for the home side they were not rewarded for their efforts.

The Texans, hosting the visiting Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday afternoon in the wild-card round of postseason football, lined up in a standard punt return formation after stopping L.A. on third down. However, right before the ball was snapped, cornerback D'Angelo Ross came sprinting in from out wide, where he initially was covering the gunner. He timed up the snap count perfectly and flew in to get a hand on J.K. Scott's punt.

However, he didn't get enough of his hand on it. The punt had enough momentum to fly past the line and then an unfortunate bounce resulted in it rolling an additional 20 yards towards the Texans' end zone.

Usually such a great block gives the return team the ball in very favorable position, and sometimes even a special teams touchdown. Instead Houston got the ball in barely better position than they would've otherwise.

Sometimes that's the way the ball bounces, though.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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