I’m not partial to superstition, but when you see patterns, it makes one wonder if there’s some underlying weirdness in the Universe that you and a few others may be privy to. Well, for my Houston Texans, that would be what I call the “Last Minute Curse.”

It’s just what it sounds like, and it’s happened three freaking times this season: the game is going along, the Texans are either tied or just ahead on the scoreboard, and then in the LAST MINUTE of the 4th QUARTER (or the last two in one case), the other team manages to get a field goal, or a 2-point conversion, or crazy drive for a touchdown and wins the game.

So, what feeds this superstitious theory?

Week 2: Touchdown with 6 seconds left on the clock, Buccaneers won, 20-19.

Week 3: Touchdown & Extra point w/ 1:54 left on the clock, Jaguars won, 17-10 (took a while to get tied up & many thought we’d go into OT, but nope).

Week 9: Field goal breaks tie with 3 seconds left on the clock, Broncos won, 18-15.

Yeah, this has been a crazy season. So when our backup QB, Mills, made that fantastic drive for a TD (making it 30-29 in our favor, pictured above) with only 30 seconds left on the game clock, you can bet I was nervous as hell. The Jaguars possessed the ball, made some drives… and then with 7 seconds left for the last possible drive, there was a strip-sack and Will Anderson Jr. charged downfield for a pick 6.

Final score in the Texans favor: 36-29.

It’s like the Football Gods decided that it was time for a “reverse curse” and said “Okay, we’re not gonna have you just squeak by, but we’ll put a cherry on top of that sundae for ya!” (funny enough, that cherry-sundae reference is what one of the announcers said when I was rewatching the pick 6).

Needless to say, I never had so much fun watching the highlights of a game before. The first half was disappointing because of all the injuries that piled up, and we were behind the whole game (maybe the curse only sticks if we score the first points… something told me the Jaguars scoring first might help us in the end… hmm….). But boy, those last 5 game minutes were riveting. We were behind by 19 points most of the game, and then made up for it and surpassed that in the last 13 minutes.

Amazing. Now I just hope like hell we can whip the Titans (again) next week with Stroud in the QB seat. More than that, Mills has shown his mettle as our backup QB and I hope he gets more time on the field like during week 4 and 5… we let him in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and he did okay. Perhaps he can continue to improve like the rest of the team and be a little extra surprise other teams have to deal with (and rotating players may help prevent more injuries that keep players out so long because they’ll be fresher).

Anyhoo, the highlight reel I’m never gonna get sick of watching. Enjoy the hell out of it with me (thanks, NFL & YouTube). And since I can’t embed it here, I’ll just show you the reaction I would’ve had with a fellow fan, had I not been at work seeing the game, but at home: