Two Wins, One Message: Sticking Together | Iron Sharpens Iron Ep. 7

Two Wins, One Message: Sticking Together | Iron Sharpens Iron Ep. 7

There is no way around it. It’s a cold winter day here in Baltimore, but it is clear and sunny. A perfect day of football. Well, the players don’t mind it. This place is uh it’s a very interesting place for me because we came here early in my career in the playoffs. The Texans are coming off their first ever playoff victory against the Cincinnati Bengals. Now you have to go on the road. Your first ever road playoff game. But for the Houston Texans, this is a tall order because the Baltimore Ravens just don’t lose very much here at home. But I remember playoff football. Big pressure, big sack. The Texans get there again. Guess who? This was the number two defense in the league. Guys like JJ Watt, Brian Cushing leading the way. And Demo Ryan. Nice hit hard by De Mo Ryan. TJ was playing, filling in for Shaw. TJ Yates had been starting for a few games now. This is the year when the Texans were completely depleted at quarterback and rookie TJ Yates is your starter. It was a crazy game. Did everything we could and we tried to pull it out and we didn’t as the Texans fall in the divisional round of the playoffs to Baltimore. Baltimore is a great city. They love their team. Just a great place to play. Unfortunately, the Texans don’t have a whole lot of great memories here, but I know what can be, and I look forward to this game tomorrow. [Music] The Texans were 0 for Baltimore going into that game. You have beaten the Ravens, but never in that place. And you finally had some momentum going in coming off a big victory over Tennessee 26 to nothing. And we all were eager to see how the offense, defense, everybody would respond and try to win backto back for the first time this year. Let’s go to work, baby. Dominate every step. They want to get big. We going to get bigger. We going to go in there and we going to strike. Let’s go, bro. Go. Three. 1 2 3. together. Already here. Let’s go. Hey, set the tone right now. I’m right behind you. All right. Let’s ride. Firing right side out of the end zone. Caught. Touchdown Houston. 20 the 15 10 5 rocket ball. This is a monumental performance by the Houston Texans so far in Baltimore. Hey, I think everybody likes the world, right? You know, it’s a fun game. Got to have fun. So, like to have a smile on our face, like to be upbeat, like to have energy, and go out and compete to be our best. It’s just a band of brothers. Like, you know, it’s us against the world. I think we’ve always had that motto here. Um, it really just shines when you go on away games in the NFL. It’s just it’s you against everybody. One receiver to the left side. CJ looks it over. Here’s the snap. CJ fakes the handoff, throws right side. Got a man. Xavier Hutchinson. Touchdown Houston. Five yd TD. Yeah, boy. Yeah. Great drive, babe. I knew right when I heard the play call the potential to go to me. I just hear the play call. I’m like, you know what, man? I feel like I can actually get this ball. Uh, and really just sold the guy. Saw everybody flow. Uh, and kind of immediately like when I turned my head, man, I knew I was getting the ball. Only thing in my head I was thinking was, you know, just catch it. Just catch it. But as soon as I got into the uh into the end zone, man, I was too excited. So, I hit my dance immediately before I forgot. Uh I threw the ball. Actually ended up losing it. We left the ball. You left the ball. [Music] It was a great feeling uh finally, you know, getting in the end zone being in the third year. Uh just super grateful and blessed. You’re three. You’re three, bro. You’re three. I’m five. Damn. When I tell you gang, you’re five. Can’t go quick. Byron White X. Touchdown, Houston. You look at the wide receiver group, you know, from top to bottom, they love football. Um, you talk about a group that prepares, talk about a group that goes out and competes and and you can sense the joy that they have in in the work that they do. Hey. Uh, the good we got to beat him. Oh, yeah. First we do that. We got to hurry up. CJ looking. CJ firing over the middle and it’s caught for a touchdown. Houston. Nico Collins for six. We do this. [Applause] [Music] Rush faced again. Throws over the middle. bobbled and juggled and picked off by Petri. He’s got it, man. Five in a crazy bank, bro. There’s no wonder that he makes so many plays on the field. Like, you just see the work that he puts in. You see how he’s just dedicated to the game and then he goes out in the field and he just You don’t know what he’s going to do, but he going to make a play. Why you put 80 on your mix? Why you put 80 on your mix? I’m winning the game for a play and you can kind of tell whenever receivers trying to run around to get the ball. Here’s Rush to throw on first down. He was he was on his route to get the ball. So I just played some technique. He’s going to gun it downfield right side. Just snatched it and came down. I see five right there. I see some of the guys and we go down there. We turn up on that. And that’s going to do it. It’s over in Baltimore. The Texans make history, beating the Ravens on the road for the first time ever. a blowout victory 4410 to up their record to two and three backto back wins. I think when you look at the win versus the Ravens, it was a a great win for our team. Um, you know, and again, it’s it’s part of the process, you know, we wanted to go out there and we wanted to play a clean football game. We wanted to compete and be at our best. And I felt like from top to bottom, you know, was it perfect? No. But I thought we made a lot of strides. I thought our guys battled and I thought there were a lot of positives that came out of it. Um the goal for us really now really focus on ourselves and and focus on being the best that we can be. Hey man. Hey, outstanding job everybody in here, man. Outstanding job. We talked about making history. First time in this organization’s history, all right, to come up here in Baltimore and get the win. Outstanding job. And then when I talked about the keys to victory, right, as a as a team, all right, we talked about offense dominating first down. 8.5 yards first down. Wow. Third down, you guys. We’re at seven to 12 on third down. Right. CJ, four touchdowns. Out. Out, baby. We got Huts. Two touchdowns. Got to say no. First one of many. [Applause] And we talk about a kicking game changing if it was an Emmy. Where you at, baby? Emmy. Three and three on field go. [Applause] Hey, then to close it out, defense. We talked about taking three. You guys took three. JP got finishing off with a third, man. Hey, hey, love you guys, man. Hey, way to come out and dominate. We just getting started. We just getting started. I love where our team is. I love how everybody working, executing. That’s what it look like. We do it the right way, man. Outstanding job by everybody. Let’s hop on this bird and get to the house. Hey, one time, baby. Take down. Let’s go, baby. Iron sharpens Iron is brought to you by Houston Methodist, the official healthc care provider for the Houston Texans. Season after season, our team shows us what it means to play hard and leave everything on the field. The experts at Houston Methodist have proudly cared for the Texans for more than 20 years, helping the team train and perform at the top of their game. From the pros to the rising stars in girls flag football, Houston Methodist is proud to support athletes at every level, helping fuel the future of the game. Houston Methodist, leading medicine. [Applause] [Music] Coach, back from the buy. How’s it going? Oh, it’s going awesome, man. Feel refreshed, recharged, ready to hit the ground running again. What’s that first practice like when you get back from the buy? What are you looking for? Our first practice is just a matter of getting guys back into hearing the calls, getting lined up, just going through football again. [Music] [Music] our guys understand, you know, the schedule and how we work. Now, it’s just going to be a matter of like you said, handling a long flight, going out and playing at a later start time and just handling that with the right mindset that it tr it doesn’t matter. We don’t control when the ball is kicked off. We don’t control what day we play. We control how we play. Come on. Let’s go. Come on. Let’s go. Let’s go. It’s a fun place to play because of the environment. I think when you think about football environments and different stadiums, Seattle is one of those stadiums that ranks pretty high. It’s got to be loud. The crowd noise is going to be there. Fans are going to be into it. It’s always a fun place to play. [Music] That was a tough one. Hard fought battle. I thought our guys, you know, we had had some plays that we made to keep us in the game, right? Multiple times we had opportunities. Uh it fell short there. I mean, we got to be able to move the ball better. got nothing he could do about it. From the standpoint also of just everybody just doing their job, doing we what we’re coached to do, doing it on a consistent basis, like we got to do better in that in that end. And that starts with me. We got to be a savage. Like a real deal savage. I feel like that’s how we’re wired. Like coach tells us that like he tries to instill that in us. Like that that’s not something that really needs to be told. It’s like anytime you’re on that field, I’m in savage mode. So it’s just like we’re going out there to win every rep on every play. Laughing wraps him up at the PFL back to the 31 from the front line to the back. You got to have that dog in. He’s going to throw. He passes. It’s picked off. Kalin with the pick and just what the Texans needed. It don’t just happen on Sunday. It starts on Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday. Really, it just starts during the week and then like you can’t just go out there in the game and just think that you’ll be the number one scorer on defense or just think that you can make all these plays. you have to put in the work during the week. So just having that savage mentality whenever no one’s watching, that’s what really helps whenever the whole world is watching. Darnold in trouble and Will Anderson has him down. The ball is out and Will Anderson has it for a touchdown. You need to focus in one snap at a time. When we do that, we play well. It’s not complicated to play this game. We don’t need to make it that way. Let’s play fast and let’s play fun. Welcome to week eight of the NFL season where this afternoon it’s the San Francisco 49ers in town to take on the Houston Texans. The Niners now at 5-2 with the Rams and the Seahawks, two teams the Texans are familiar with. While the Texans, they’re two and four. They’re trying to bounce back from that loss in Seattle on Monday night. This one’s pretty simple. They have to have a win today at two and four if they expect to climb back into the playoff hunt. Come on now. Hey, all day. Energy and passion. Everything you got for the name next to you, man. For the name on the front and the name on the back. Everything you got. Whatever it takes. Whatever the it takes. Together. Let’s go, man. Come on. And 103. 1 2 3. This game I would expect and anticipate that the 49ers are going to blitz a whole lot again. And the Texans have to show whether or not they can handle the blitz and whether CJ can a get the time that he needs, but also b CJ himself adapt and adjust with younger wide receivers, get Jaylen Dole and Jaden Higgins more involved. And then on the sum total of it all, can the offensive line run block effectively versus this 49ers defense or at least any better than they did last week? Come on. Hey, set this off right now. Come on, boy. You know you’re with me, buddy. Come on, let’s go. Here we go. Oh, from the Texans 28 yd line. Chub in the back field. Straoud out of the gun. Hands off to Nick straight ahead and he’s coralled across the 35 yd line. CJ under center this time on second down. Here’s the snap. CJ fakes the gift. CJ in trouble. He throws to the right side. A rolling catch here. Very nice. Third and 11 at the San Francisco 47 yd line. Straoud empty backfield. Here’s the snap. Here’s the throw over the middle. It’s caught. spin move across the 35 yd line down to the 31 yd line. Braxton Berios moves the Jade 14 yd gain. That White Lightning, that’s White Lightning right there. Stroud in the gut. Third and seven at the 49ers 30 yd line. Dar in the game in the back field. Here’s pressure. CJ over the middle. He hits Higgins and Higgins is brought down to the 24 yd line. A yard short of a first down as the offense isn’t going anywhere. Fourth and almost two inside the 25 yd line of San Francisco. Loud under center. CJ is going to try to find a hole. Spins. Got it. It appears. CJ under center. Takes the snap. Fakes the give. Looking, stepping around, throwing underneath and he’s got shove. He takes it across the 15 down to the 14 yd line. Hits fourth and a long two. Tommy Townson will hold. Austin Brinkman with the snap. Here’s the spot. Here’s Fair Bear’s kick up and good. And the Texans lead three nothing on San Francisco after a long drive. Great drive, boy. Hell yeah. We need that. And the Texans have the ball back up 3 nothing. 337 to go in the first. Second and five from the Houston 18. Stroud under center. Fakes the handoff. Steps up. CJ pulls the trigger. Short game right side. Woody marks on the run. 25 30 35 40 right sideline. 50 45. Breaks a tackle. 40. And finally rope down inside the 33 yd line. Big catch and run into 49er territory for Woody Marks. On second and 10 at the San Francisco 32 delayed handoff and here’s Chub running across the 25 yd line down inside the 23 yd line and they’ll take a 34 yd extra point. Austin Brinkman with the snap. Here’s Townson’s spot. Fair kick up and good. And the Texans are 6 nothing ahead of San Francisco. Come on boy. They got to deal with us all day. All day. All day. Boom. Woo! Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Jones takes the snap. Delayed hand off. McCaffrey threw a hole left side and tripped up across the 32 yd line. Good run of about seven and a half. Third and two. Niners from their 33. Jones in a gun. One back. Here’s the snap to Jones. Jones looking. Jones dumping it short and wrapped up at the 32 yd line. Robinson as Petri makes the play for a loss. And the ners will punt. He wanted that dig on right there, huh? He wanted that dig to KB. I was right there. Great. Yeah. Hey, great tackle in the flat. Great tackle in the flap. Defense outstanding so far. Offense moving the ball, but not into the end zone. TJ quick throw underneath. Hits X. Xavier Hutchinson takes it across the 27 yd line. Third down and four from the Houston 24. CJ in the gun. Here’s the snap. Litz. CJ looking. CJ airing it out left side. Got a man at the 31 yd line. It’s Null. He picks up the first down on second and eight from the Houston 33. CJ faced again. Steps out to his right. Steps up now. Airs it out long downfield and caught by null at the 25 yd line of San Francisco. A huge play to Jaylen Null. They’ll mark him at the 22. Third and five. Here’s the snap. CJ. Quick throw left side and he’s got his man diving for the marker. First down at the 12 yd line. Braxton Berios. First down at the San Francisco 12. Stra of the gun. Here’s the snap. CJ with a little time. Throws to the end zone. Caught. Touchdown. Jaden Higgins. Houston scores. Hand off right there. Come on now. Come on now. Crowd is hot to start this game. He is off to some start. And it’s all it all started up front along the offensive line. He is getting the most protection I’ve seen all season long. Uh uh here in 2025. 37 yd field goal attempt coming up from the right hash mark. North end zone. Bears kick up. Fair Baron three for three and the Texans grow the lead 16 nothing. All right. See keep working. Baron Baron ready to kick off. Robinson right side at the five over the 10 15 20 cutting left 25 30 35 he’s through a hole 40 and he’s down in midfield. That was too much on the return. M. Jones in the gun. First down at the Houston 35. Jones passed the ball. Fires downfield and he’s got a man in the red zone. Kendrick Bourne. Jones gets the snap. Jones with time throwing over the middle. Incomplete. Toe toe breaking it up. McCaffrey in the back field with him. Jan Jennings in motion to the right. Here’s the snap. Jones stepping up, throwing over the middle and incomplete. He wanted Jawan Jennings and he couldn’t make the connection. KD in motion to the right. Third and 10 at the Houston 17. Here’s the snap to Jones. Jones quick throw end zone and KD with the catch. KD with the touchdown. Wow. Shows you why he’s one of the best in the business right there. This gives him some life. McCaffrey in the back field. Jones under center. 16-7 Texans lead. McCaffrey gets hit and gets up and McAffrey finally gang tackled at the 47 with about a half yard of the play. You are hard as hell. Here’s the snap. Here’s pressure. Jones hit as he throws. Ball comes out. Speed picks it up. Oh, they’re going to call it incomplete and the Texans get off the field anyway. On second and six from the Houston 10. Got to be careful. The snap by Andrews. Here’s CJ. Quick throw slant and he’s got his man up to the 20 yd line. Jaden Higgins. CJ in the gun. One bat. Dar. CJ gets the snap. Throwing over the middle and caught. Null. He picks up the first down. Third and 10. Texans from the Houston 33. One back. CJ in the gun. Straoud gets the snap. Straoud stepping up. Straoud in trouble. Throws to his right. He hits Schultz across the 40. Makes a nice move. 4550. First down into 49er territory. Jump back in. Straoud under center. Calling signals. Back to throw. Over the middle. He goes inside the 35. It is caught and down inside the 33 yd line. Good Moali in the back field. CJ in the gut now. Third and seven at the San Francisco 30. Here’s pressure. CJ over the middle. Caught 15 10 5 in the end zone. Rock and roll. Touchdown. Houston. What a play to Xavier Hutchinson who X marks the spot. 23 to7 with 729 to go in the third quarter. Texans in command. Jones under center. McCaffrey at the back field. They feed him and he’s got a little room in the cup back 30 and Petri and friends have him down at the 33 yd line. Jones in the gun. McCaffrey to his right. Third and six. Here’s the snap. Jones pressure arriving. He sneaks out of it. Jones on the run 45 and slides. He’s across the 50 to the 49 yd line of Houston. Bourne in motion to the right. Jones fakes the give and now hands off to McCaffrey down to the 37 yd line. Caffrey to the left of M. Jones who gets the snap. He’s got a little time. Throws it down field and this is caught inside the 21 yd line by George KD. Tagged down there. First down again. 49ers. Second and nine at the 20. Jones under center. Drops back. He’s in trouble. Jones tripped up and sacked back at the 27 yd line. Derek Barnett. Third and 17 at the Houston 27. Jones with a little time hit as he throws downfield and caught inside the 5 yd line. First and goal at the two. High formation. Jones fakes the give. Rolls out to the right. He’s got a man caught. Touchdown 49ers. 49ers right back in this thing. Down by 10. They may go for two here. Now they’re going to go for two. Jones fakes the give. Throws right side. Too easy as it’s popped by Demarcus Robinson for the deuce. All of a sudden a one-sore affair here at NRG Stadium. The Texans must answer. Up 2315 from the 31 yd line. He hands off to Woody Marks up the middle 3540 cutting right tripped up at the 45 yd line. Brown hands off to Woody Marks again running to the left side. Has the corner 30 25 20 and knocked out of bounds inside the 15 yd line. Woody Marks does it again. Here’s the spot. Here’s Fair Barrett’s kick up and it’s good. Fair on the day. An 11-point lead for the Texans. 941 to go. Fourth quarter. Buckle up. Second and 10 from the Niners. One takes the snap. He’s looking. He fires downfield to his right. Got a man. Bourne bought. First and 10. Jones pressure. Throws over the middle. Got a man. Mist tackles. McCaffrey and he’s tripped up across the 45 down to the 41 yd line of Houston. Texans can’t get to Jones who throws it over the middle to McAffrey. Free at the 30 and knocked down hard by Henry Toatoa. Jones looking. Jones throwing downfield to his left and intercepted. The Texans with the takeaway. The pick intended for Jennings. Houston gets it done with Kamari Lacer with the INT. This game is over. The Houston Texans get the job done in a big way, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 2615. They had to have it. They got it. They played outstanding offense for much of the afternoon and the defense came up with the big stops when needed and Houston goes to three and four with Denver up next week at home. Hey man. Hey man, I can’t I couldn’t be more proud of you guys, man. Like for our game plan and what we wanted to do and how we knew we had to win this game. It was the off like we talked about controlling the game, right? We got 30 runs. Outstanding job offense. how you that’s that’s a good football team. You guys control the ball. You guys had the ball for 41 minutes. All right. That’s how you control the game and just keep pressing. All right. Keep pressing. Hey, I couldn’t be more proud of you guys. Love the way you guys work. And remember our formula. Don’t forget our formula, man. It’s just remaining discipline. One snap at a time. Everybody remaining locked in. Doesn’t matter who we play. This is how we got to show up each and every game. All right. Stay together. Keep it tight. We’re a family. We keep it tight. We protect each other. We fight for each other. I always remember that, man. Who cares what people say, bro? Never matters. We on the field, bro. It don’t matter what nobody say, man. Keep the confidence. Keep the faith. It’s easy to have faith when it’s easy. It’s easy to have faith when it’s easy. Now, y’all boys have faith when it was hard, man. And we been out there. We beat a good team, man. So, let’s keep on doing this. Keep stack. Let’s keep rolling. Love y’all boys. Family on three. One, two, three. Family.

The Houston Texans made history in Baltimore — and then backed it up at home against the 49ers. But this continues to be a season where the team searches for consistency.

Go inside the locker room, the sideline, and the huddle for two statement wins that showed what this team can be — even if the work isn’t done yet.

From C.J. Stroud’s precision passing to Xavier Hutchinson’s breakout moment and Jayden Higgins’ first touchdown, this episode of Iron Sharpens Iron brings you closer than ever to the grind, the emotion, and the energy in H-Town.

🎥 Presented by Houston Methodist, the official healthcare provider of the Houston Texans.

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0:00 – Exclusive J.J. Watt and Marc Vandermeer reflect on past playoff ghosts in Baltimore
1:38 – Setting the stage for the road game in Baltimore
2:02 – Pregame in Baltimore
2:26 – Texans at Baltimore: Inside the game with Nick Caley and Xavier Hutchinson
5:00 – Kamari Lassiter on Jalen Pitre vs Baltimore
6:34 – Post-game in the locker room
7:10 – Victory celebration — but the record says “still searching”
8:05 – More on Houston Methodist, the official healthcare provider of the Houston Texans
8:41 – Back from the bye with DeMeco Ryans
9:24 – Prep for Seattle Seahawks
10:24 – Reflecting ont he Seattle loss
12:15 – Locking in for San Francisco’s visit to H-Town
13:31 – Kickoff vs the Niners
23:35 – Post-game in the locker room after the Niners win

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