Redskins vs. Texans: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2014 Regular Season

The Houston Texans are starting the 2014 season better than the last one ended with a 17-6 win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday.    

While these were two of the worst teams in the league last season, Houston got a strong performance from the defense as Arian Foster totaled 103 rushing yards on 27 carries.

Robert Griffin III went 29-of-37 for 267 yards and no interceptions, but he also had zero touchdown passes while struggling to move the ball all day. Alfred Morris added 91 rushing yards on 14 carries for the Redskins in a losing effort.

With the loss, Washington now owns the longest active losing streak in the NFL:

The Redskins were the first to get on the scoreboard thanks to a one-yard touchdown run by Darrel Young, which was set up by Morris' 21-yard scamper to the 1-yard line. However, Kai Forbath's extra-point attempt was blocked by J.J. Watt to hold the score to 6-0.

This was one of a few big plays for the defensive end early in this game, as James Palmer of CSN Houston noted:

Washington was not able to hold the lead for too long, as the Texans were able to answer with a score on the next drive thanks to a huge TD catch from DeAndre Hopkins.

The NFL.com Twitter feed discussed the impact of the second-year receiver:

One drive later, the Texans built their lead up to 14-6 on a blocked punt by rookie Alfred Blue, which he recovered and ran into the end zone. At this point, Charles Robinson of Yahoo was impressed by Houston's play:

That remained the score at halftime with neither side doing too much offensively. ESPN's Skip Bayless explained why Griffin's stats were not as good as they seemed:

Things looked better for the Redskins to start the second half when an extended drive put them deep into Houston territory. Unfortunately, another mistake led to a turnover as the third-year quarterback continued to struggle. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports questioned the play of the former Rookie of the Year:

Just when it seemed the Texans were going to take advantage of these miscues, though, Foster gave the ball right back to the Redskins inside the red zone. Fortunately for the home team, the defense was able to hold steady whenever it got the chance.

A Randy Bullock field goal gave Houston the 17-6 lead, which proved to be a big enough cushion to end a 14-game losing streak. Texans head coach Bill O'Brien explained why this first game was going to be difficult, via Mike Jones of The Washington Post:

"

It’s tough. It’s a tough challenge. ...The challenge of the first game, especially with a new staff—a really strong coaching staff with Coach Gruden there now and all of his assistants—trying to figure out what to look at to get ready for it, preseason, Cincinnati; it’s a tough challenge.

"

Apparently, he was up to the task, as he was able to secure a win in his professional head-coaching debut. The Texans still have a long way to go to get back to where they were two years ago as division champs, but any win is big after a 2-14 season.

Houston will have another winnable game next week with a road matchup against the Oakland Raiders. With an overall favorable schedule to start the year, this team can build a lot of momentum going forward.

The lone downside to this game was the injury to first overall pick Jadeveon Clowney:

Hopefully, this does not end up being a long-term issue and he will be able to return to the field soon to wreak havoc opposite Watt.

Meanwhile, things continue to get worse for the Redskins after a 3-13 season. They will return home for a battle with the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2, but a loss in that game could be a bad sign for the rest of the year.

While Griffin was not terrible in Sunday's defeat, it will likely not be long until fans start clamoring for Kirk Cousins to get onto the field.

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