HOUSTON \u2013 Tommy Togiai didn\u2019t stop believing he was going to ultimately score a touchdown. <\/p>\n
The Texans\u2019 strongman defensive tackle just didn\u2019t know when it was going to happen.<\/p>\n
An epic and fun to watch scoop-and-score would unfold in the final seconds of a 38-30 regular-season finale victory over the Indianapolis Colts at NRG Stadium. Togiai hit paydirt finally after a botched fullback play unraveled earlier in the game Sunday at NRG Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just trusting my faith in God,\u201d Togiai said. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t, He wouldn\u2019t have blessed me with these abilities. My mindset every day, my routine, I keep going, just trusting in him and believing in myself and my teammates. He works in mysterious ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the game Sunday, his golden opportunity to score his first NFL touchdown went awry when quarterback and former Ohio State teammate C.J. Stroud was supposed to hand the football off to him.<\/p>\n
Lined up at fullback in the red zone for a play designed as a nod of respect for all of his diligence during a breakthrough season on defense that earned him a one-year, $3.3 million contract extension for next year, Togiai never got the football. Stroud realized it was crowded at the line of scrimmage for a smooth hand-off, so he kept it himself for a touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a touchdown in the end,\u201d Togiai said. \u201cIt could have been to me, but it happened how it happened. C.J. got in the end zone and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d <\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the end of his chances to score his first touchdown since playing high school football in Idaho as the Gatorade Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
Down 32-30 with five seconds left in the game and out of timeouts, the Colts were in desperation mode. Colts rookie quarterback Riley Leonard hit wide receiver Josh Downs and the Colts began a series of laterals on a play the Texans call \u201crugby\u201d that went back to Leonard from Michael Pittman Jr. <\/p>\n
An attempted lateral from Leonard to rookie tight end Tyler Warren was unsuccessful and the football bounced away from him as well as Texans linebacker Henry To\u2019oTo\u2019o, going right to an alert Togiai.<\/p>\n
Then, Togiai, who bench pressed 500 pounds and squats 700 pounds as one of the Texans\u2019 strongest players, took off for a 17-yard fumble return for a touchdown. He showed some impressive speed and agility and a nose for the end zone, eluding a tackler for a diving score.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just kind of tracking the ball and the ball just popped right to me, took it, and I was like, \u2018I got to go score, I got to go score right here,\u201d Togiai said. \u201cOnly once in a lifetime do you get an opportunity like that, so I was like, \u2018I got to get in the end zone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Togiai celebrated with Texans coach DeMeco Ryans after the touchdown. It was a cool moment as Ryans even did Togiai\u2019s traditional Samoan celebration forming his big right arm into an S.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo close it out the way he did, getting in the end zone, that\u2019s why you saw our entire sideline running down celebrating with Tommy,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cHe\u2019s a coach\u2019s dream, he\u2019s always in the right place, always doing what you ask him to do. And very cool way for him to have that clutch moment and end the game with a touchdown.\u201d <\/p>\n
This has been a breakthrough season for Togiai, a former blue-chip recruit for the Buckeyes who played for the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings before joining the Texans last season on their practice squad.<\/p>\n
He has recorded a career-high 59 tackles with 1 1\/2 sacks and six tackles for losses as he has earned a starting job after Tim Settle Jr. suffered a season-ending foot injury.<\/p>\n
Stroud took the blame for the botched potential touchdown for Togiai when he though he might get his foot stomped on by Colts defensive tackle Grover Stewart as he retreated too far to safely hand it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went back to my human nature and I skipped out and I missed him,\u201d Stroud said. \u201cI felt so bad. I went over there and did five push-ups for him. But I\u2019m good, though. We finished, he got his touchdown, nobody can be mad at me anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy for my guy. I love Tommy. That\u2019s one of my Buckeye brothers. I\u2019ve known Tommy since I was 18 years old. He\u2019s a great player, but also a great human. I\u2019m just happy to see him really prevail in this league and have great seasons back-to-back.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Texans have now won nine consecutive games, an NFL-leading streak. They finished the regular season 12-5 and earned the fifth seed in the AFC playoff bracket after an 0-3 start to the season.<\/p>\n
Now, they\u2019ll travel to face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night next week in an AFC wild-card playoff game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re never going to back down,\u201d Togiai said. \u201cWe\u2019re always going to keep fighting to the very end. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m here today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Tommy Togiai didn\u2019t stop believing he was going to ultimately score a touchdown. The Texans\u2019 strongman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,6,95109,222,33708],"class_list":{"0":"post-655878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-houstontexans","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-scoop-and-score","14":"tag-texans","15":"tag-tommy-togiai"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115842511310366428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}