Houston Texans key play: Dallas Cowboys convert big 4th down en route to winning touchdown

Each week, we take a closer look at arguably the biggest play from the Houston Texans’ game. Here’s what we viewed as the turning point from Sunday’s 34-30 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at Reliant Stadium.

The situation: Cowboys’ ball, fourth-and-4 at Dallas’ 32-yard line.

The score: Texans 30, Cowboys 27

Time remaining: 1 minutes, 34 seconds in fourth quarter.

The sequence: The Cowboys faced what essentially was a do-or-die situation with fourth down in their own territory after Kamari Ramsey stopped CeeDee Lamb for a 3-yard loss on third down. But Dak Prescott found tight end Jake Ferguson in a soft spot in the middle of the Texans’ defense for a 7-yard gain to keep the drive alive.

The aftermath: Prescott went to work after the fourth-down conversion. A 15-yard pass to Lamb – the Foster High School graduate who had a monster game with 17 catches for 189 yards – got Dallas into Houston territory and a 22-yarder to George Pickens later moved the Cowboys to the Texans’ 12, from where they scored the winning touchdown two plays later. That plunged the Texans to 0-4, from which only one team in NFL history has recovered to make the playoffs.

What might’ve been: Had they got a fourth-down stop, the Texans would’ve had the ball deep in Dallas territory with the Cowboys holding two timeouts. That meant one more Houston first down would’ve ended the game.

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This article originally published at Houston Texans key play: Dallas Cowboys convert big 4th down en route to winning touchdown.