HOUSTON -- Had the Texans hung on to upset the Patriots, there's no question that the game ball would have gone to Ramon Walker.
He not only blocked a punt late in the fourth quarter, paving the way for a field goal that gave Houston a 7-point lead, but, more importantly, he also blocked a 27-yard field-goal attempt by Adam Vinatieri in overtime.
"That doesn't happen very often," Texans coach Dom Capers said of the two blocks by one player in the same game.
Walker was confident he was going to block at least one kick against New England.
"We knew during the week that we could get a block," he said. "We picked it up on film."
The Texans spotted a weakness inside in the Patriots' blocking scheme for place-kicks.
"Watching film this week, we saw they had a gap in the line," said Walker, who came through a gap on the right side to block what could have been the game-winner by Vinatieri.
"We knew we could probably get a jump-through to block the kick. We worked on the jump-through technique. I jumped through, laid out for it, and blocked it."
A backup strong safety, Walker used his speed from the outside to get past Tedy Bruschi and block Walter's punt.
"I saw that there was a linebacker playing the wing position," Walker said. "I knew I could beat him with my speed. I did an up-and-under move to get by. I got through clean and laid out for the block."
Both kicks were not merely blocked, but entirely smothered.
Much as the Texans' offense was throughout the game.
Houston was outgained by the massive margin of 472-169. Quarterback Tony Banks, a former starter in St. Louis, Baltimore and Washington who was filling in yesterday for the injured David Carr, threw for just 93 yards, completing only 10 of 25 attempts.
He did have two touchdown passes, however, as the Texans capitalized on turnovers by the Patriots to get the ball into the end zone twice in the second half.
But Houston couldn't make any plays offensively in overtime.
Walker bailed out the Texans with his blocked field goal after Banks was intercepted at his own 27 by linebacker Mike Vrabel on the first play of the extra period.
Having looked at first like they were going to lose in overtime, the Texans appeared to be on the verge of winning when Patriots punter Ken Walter, kicking out of his own end zone, was able to boot the ball only to the N.E. 35.
"Unfortunately," Banks said, "we got moved back."
The Texans found themselves out of field-goal range when Willie McGinest dropped rookie running back Domanick Davis for a loss of 5 on 2nd-and-10, and Banks threw incomplete on third down.
"When it came down to it," Banks said, "they made the plays, and we didn't."
Nobody can say that Walker didn't make plays.
"I just go out there and try to make things happen," he said. "Everyone on our team thought we were going to win. It hurts because we know we could have won. To go into overtime and lose just kills you."
