After a 0-3 start, the Houston Texans are back in the postseason.

Not bad for a team left for dead after an underwhelming start to the regular season.

Behind a two-touchdown performance from C.J. Storud in the first quarter, the Texans secured a 20-16 road win over the Los Angeles Chargers to clinch 11 wins, a first under DeMeco Ryans. After jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, their offense stalled, and Houston never reached the end zone again.

But it didn’t matter. Houston’s defense forced a red zone interception on Justin Herbert and recorded six sacks. They held Cameron Dicker to a pair of field goals and forced a missed point-after-attempt to make it a four-point game on the final drive.

“I know how they work throughout training camp, when nobody’s watching,” Ryans said postgame. “I know how close our team got throughout training camp and throughout the season. I know how we just have guys who are true believers, who are unwavering in their faith, guys who come to work every single day, put in the work no matter what they’re saying on the outside.”

Two field goals from Ka’imi Fairbarin made the difference with kicks from 40-plus yards downfield. Stroud finished with two interceptions, but he also completed 57.1 percent of his passes and finished with an 80.1 passer rating.

“I feel like C.J. did an outstanding job,” Ryans said. “Even though he had some picks early, he continued to battle. We continue to throw the ball and continue to make some good decisions with the ball. I like how we faced adversity and overcame it.”

With the win, Houston not only eliminated the Indianapolis Colts from playoff contention but kept their AFC South division hopes alive. Should Houston defeat Indianapolis and the Jacksonville Jaguars lose their next two games, the Texans will win the AFC South for the third consecutive season.

“I thought when people were trying to divide us and try to pick on one person or one thing or whoever. We had opportunities to stick together,” Stroud said. “So, I thought that that was whatthis year has been for me and that’s what I’m most proud of is just in that time, we stuck together and stayed one because we could’ve easily spun it off and the season would have went differently.”

Pro Football Focus handed out player grades for those who took a snap in Houston’s win over the Chargers and we broke them down by offense and defense. Below are the five highest and lowest grades on the offensive side of the ball after a promising win at SoFi Stadium.

There were a few surprises in terms of the highest- and lowest-graded players, both on offense and defense. In fact, most of you can already guess who graded out in stellar and horrendous fashion.

Here’s a look at the five best offensive players below:

Top 5 offenseWR Jaylin Noel – 81.4WR Nico Collins – 77.8WR Jayden Higgins – 77.0OT Blake Fisher – 70.4RB Jawhar Jordan – 69.4

Noel and Higgins caught the two touchdown passes on explosive plays over 20 yards downfield. They both graded out with over a 79 in route-running and catch radius. Collins, who finished with three catches for 57 yards, graded out with an 88.4 pass-catching grade.

Fisher, who started at left tackle, graded out with a 79.6 pass-blocking grade, the second-highest of his career in over 20 games and 400 snaps.

Bottom 5 offenseTE Dalton Schultz – 43.6OL Jarrett Patterson – 47.4RB Dare Ogunbowale – 56.9OL Jake Andrews – 56.9TE Cade Stover – 57.2

All struggled in run blocking, so at least that metric proved to be a concern.

Other notablesRB Woody Marks – 63.7WR Christian Kirk – 58.6OL Ed Ingram – 57.3QB C.J. Stroud – 67.6RB Nick Chubb – 57.5