Johnson leads Texans past Rams 16-13

ST. LOUIS — Big games from Andre Johnson and Matt Schaub helped the Houston Texans win by a narrow margin.

Schaub had his eighth 300-yard passing game and Andre Johnson set a season best with 196 yards receiving, but the Texans ended up leaning on field goals to hold off the lowly St. Louis Rams 16-13 on Sunday.

The Rams (1-13) lost their 12th in a row at home and for the 23rd time in 24 games overall only three days after canceling practice after a confirmed case of swine flu. St. Louis got all of its players back, but lost for the second time this season while wearing throwback jerseys honoring the 1999 Super Bowl championship team.

Schaub was 28 for 40 for 367 yards and a touchdown and Johnson hurt the Rams' secondary with four of his nine receptions going for at least 30 yards. The Texans consistently bogged down deep in St. Louis territory, though, and got the go-ahead score on a 28-yard field goal by Kris Brown, his third of the game, with 4:36 to go.

Johnson had catches of 38, 49, 30 and 44 yards. He finished with nine catches for 196 yards. In the last two victories, he’s caught 20 passes for 390 yards.

“It was ugly,” Johnson said. “Normally, when you play road games, the other team’s fans are energetic, but their fans weren’t at the beginning. I think that killed our energy. The atmosphere of the stadium was kind of dead.”

Johnson’s incredible performance resurrected an offense that was terrific until it reached the red zone. The Texans had one touchdown on four trips to the red zone – Schaub’s 3-yard pass to Kevin Walter.

Click here to order Andre Johnson’s proCane Rookie Card.



(ap.com)