No one would have thought it at the time, but last week's injury to Dameon Pierce helped the Houston Texans to a win.
With Pierce out, the Texans needed to keep active Dare Ogunbowale, who wound up being their backup running back and emergency kicker. Ogunbowale is expected to continue in that dual role Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals as the Texans try to continue their resurgence.
Texans kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn was placed on injured reserve Saturday and will miss at least four weeks after suffering a quad injury before halftime last Sunday, meaning former Jets and Chiefs kicker Matt Amendola will be Houston's new kicker Sunday while Ogunbowale once again will be the backup emergency kicker.
With Fairbairn sidelined and the Texans locked in a tight game with the Buccaneers, the stage was set for Ogunbowale, who nailed a tiebreaking 29-yard field goal to give Houston a 33-30 lead with 8:45 remaining. He became the first non-kicker or punter to make a field goal since Wes Welker on Oct. 10, 2004, for the Dolphins against the Patriots.
Ogunbowale also handled the kickoff duties in the second half, but Houston had gone for 2 on each of its three second-half touchdowns before his clutch field goal. The Texans won 39-37.
The Texans were able to turn to Ogunbowale last week because he also was helping fill in for Pierce, who was out with an ankle injury that also will sideline him Sunday against the Bengals. If Pierce had been active last Sunday, Ogunbowale would not have been -- and the Texans would not have had any kicker to try the field goal they needed to defeat the Bucs.
The Texans knew what Ogunbowale could do as a running back; this is his fifth NFL season after playing at Wisconsin. But the Texans didn't fully know, nor grasp, what Ogunbowale could do at kicker.
What they did know was that Ogunbowale, who played soccer growing up, would bring his soccer ball to practice most days and warm up with it, kicking it all around. Ogunbowale never would kick field goals during practice, but he would kick his soccer ball.
So Houston knew he could kick -- just not a football, until he was called upon for last Sunday's rare field goal attempt.