HOUSTON \u2013 For Texans kicker, Ka\u2019imi Fairbairn swinging his powerful and accurate right leg requires a singular focus.<\/p>\n
If one kick is made more important than another, that could impact his well-practiced fundamentals.<\/p>\n
Fairbairn is in a zone, though. He kept splitting the uprights Sunday, hitting six field goals to tie the franchise single-game record. That included the game-winning kick with 12 seconds remaining in a 36-30 victory over the Indianapolis Colts to maintain the fifth seed in the AFC playoff standings. And that final field goal tied the NFL single-season records for field goals with David Akers, who also hit 44 field goals for the San Francisco 49ers in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe means everything,\u201d Texans Pro Bowl defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said of Fairbairn\u2019s importance to this playoff squad. \u201cHe got us out of a lot of sticky situations, man. And he has put a lot of points on the board for us, man. If it wasn\u2019t for him, we wouldn\u2019t be in the position that we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fairbairn connected from 43 yards for the game-winner, following his successful kicks from 44, 43, 29, 48 and 51 yards. He\u2019s hit 91.7 percent of his kicks this season, going 44 for 48 this season for 160 total points with 20 of the Texans\u2019 38 points Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fairbairn emphasized he didn\u2019t know he tied an NFL record that stood for 14 years until he was informed by KPRC 2 that he had hit that milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really look at stats, honestly,\u201d Fairbairn said. \u201cI just take it game by game, one at a time. You guys just told me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
No, a Colts timeout intended to affect his focus meant nothing to him. Fairbairn, 31, isn\u2019t going to be iced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe prepare for this,\u201d Fairbairn said. \u201cRegardless of the situation, time on the board, score of the game, you operate the same and that\u2019s at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the game, Fairbairn received a game ball from Texans coach DeMeco Ryans and a lot of praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cShoutout to \u2018Imi,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be where we are right now without \u2018Imi and what he\u2019s been capable of doing. T. A lot of times, I tell our guys, \u2018You take for granted when you have such a great kicker who is able to secure you points, even if things don\u2019t go your way in the red zone.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to score touchdowns every single drive, but it doesn\u2019t happen. You get in range, and you got a sure-footed kicker who can make those points. We are so thankful for \u2018Imi and how he consistently has performed throughout this entire year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Fairbairn, who tied Randy Bullock\u2019s six field goals made in a 2014 win over the Baltimore Ravens, has been ultra-reliable.<\/p>\n
The former Lou Groza award winner from UCLA has been kicking for the Texans for nine years. He missed a few games with a quadriceps injury this season. For his career, Fairbairn has made 244 of 291 field goals (87.6 percent). He\u2019s made all 28 extra points this season.<\/p>\n
Fairbairn has just one missed kick in the past seven games, all wins, as part of an NFL-leading nine-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI missed a couple games, so coming back and staying healthy is part of that,\u201d Fairbairn said. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing to be able to hit that may kicks, because you\u2019re doing it for this team, for this organization and these fans. I just go out and whenever my number\u2019s called, I\u2019ll execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing for special teams coordinator Frank Ross, a two-time Rick Gosselin award winner for having the top special teams units, Fairbairn has adapted to a new long snapper this season in rookie Austin Brinkman after legendary long snapper Jon Weeks wasn\u2019t re-signed and joined the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it starts with coaching and those guys, coach Frank is a great coach, and he really does a great job of getting us ready on a weekly basis,\u201d Fairbairn said. \u201cHe demands a lot from us, and we definitely demand a lot from each other, so, yeah, I think that\u2019s pretty neat.\u201d<\/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 For Texans kicker, Ka\u2019imi Fairbairn swinging his powerful and accurate right leg requires a singular focus.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,1030,6,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-656031","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-kaimi-fairbairn","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115842845661841071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656031","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=656031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}