Texans Losing Streak Reaches 3 With Loss To Oilers

The Texans-Chiefs franchise is celebrating its 50th season of play in 2009. This is another look at the founding team of the American Football League and its first season of play.

“Dallas is a real fine team. I don’t see how they’ve lost four times.”

Those were the words of Houston Oilers Lou Rymkus on October 16, 1960 after his team beat the Dallas Texans 20-10 at Jeppesen Stadium (right).

It was a bad day for the Texans offense with eight turnovers and the loss left Hank Stram’s team at 2-4 on the season. Many people in the American Football League that first season were amazed that Dallas was not the frontrunner from week one of the season. Because of the Texans success at signing young players like Chris Burford and Abner Haynes, and the deep pockets of Lamar Hunt, everyone in the league expected Dallas to lead the parade.

So 2-4 had Hank Stram frustrated.

“We just made too many offensive mistakes,” Stram said after the game. “Our defense did a good job, but on third down we’d lose the ball on an interception and we wouldn’t even get to kick the field goal.

“We were in a position of needing points, but we couldn’t keep the ball.”

Texans QB Cotton Davidson threw five interceptions on the day and was unable to convert any of his completions into touchdowns. The only score for Dallas was an 18-yard run by RB Abner Haynes in the second quarter that made the score 17-10 at half-time.

“We knew that in Cotton Davidson we were up against the best passer in the league and we worked like the devil on pass defense all week,” said Rymkus. “In fact, we over-emphasized it.

“Our line did the best job of rushing the passer today of any team in the league. They kept putting the pressure on Davidson and causing those interceptions.”

Dallas had six second-half possessions and all ended with either an interception or turnover. Houston safety Julian Spence had two interceptions, with the others coming from Dennit Morris, Mike Dukes and Mark Johnston.

The Oilers moved the ball thanks to the combination of QB George Blanda and WR Bill Groman, who combined for 10 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown.

“They tried to cover him man for man and you can’t cover anybody that way,” Blanda said of Groman. “He’s got a real good set of hands and he’s fast, a 9.8 man. He’s really moving out there.”

It was the third straight loss for the Texans.

GAME #6 RECAP/1960

• Opponent: Houston Oilers.
• Site: Jeppesen Stadium, crowd estimated at 19,026.
• Score: 20-10 Oilers.
• Texans Leading Rusher: Abner Haynes, 12 carries for 53 yards.
• Texans Leading Receiver: Curley Johnson, six catches for 87 yards.
• Texans Leading Passer: Cotton Davidson, 16 of 34 for 230 yards, 0 TD, 5 INT.
• Texans Punter: Davidson three punts, 101 yards, 33.6-yard average.

SCORING SUMMARY

1Q – Houston – D. Smith 1-yard TD run. G. Blanda PAT kick.

1Q – Houston – B. Groman nine-yard TD pass from Blanda. Blanda PAT kick.

2Q – Houston – Blanda 19-yard FG.

2Q – Dallas – J. Spikes 14-yard FG.

2Q – Dallas – A. Haynes 18-yard TD run. Spikes PAT kick.

3Q – Houston – Blanda 23-yard FG.