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Texans’ Creative TD for Woody Marks Sparks Confusion Among Fantasy Football Fans

Liam McKeone

The Texans had a creative play-call for Woody Marks on Sunday that has sparked fantasy football controversy
The Texans had a creative play-call for Woody Marks on Sunday that has sparked fantasy football controversy / NFL on Fox
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The Texans hosted the Cardinals on Sunday as part of the NFL’s Week 15 slate of action and wasted zero time in taking an early lead. Houston scored two touchdowns in the first 15 minutes and tacked on a field goal to finish the first quarter up 17-0 on the hapless visiting side.

The second touchdown of the day came from Woody Marks at the goal line in which the Texans appeared to creatively snap the ball right to the running back, rather than having C.J. Stroud hand it off.

A cool idea, and it obviously worked to perfection. However, the play has sparked controversy and confusion among the fantasy football community.

For those unaware, the final weeks of the NFL season coincide with fantasy football playoffs. In most leagues Week 15 is the first round of fantasy football postseason play. Therefore there were many people, both Texans fans and otherwise, ecstatic to see Marks score the touchdown.

Those same people were subsequently dismayed to learn that, in some leagues, Marks’s touchdown didn’t count as a rushing touchdown. ESPN and other major fantasy companies ruled that Marks didn’t run it in. Rather, they ruled Marks recovered a fumble and then scored—which, in standard ESPN leagues, does not count for any points.

It’s not entirely clear why that’s the case. The end zone view showed the play was pretty clearly designed as an intentional snap to Marks. But it did hit the ground, which could have been enough to change the ruling on the play from a rushing TD to a fumble recovery.

As you can imagine this ruling was not well-received by anyone in the fantasy football community. Fans were outraged and more than a little confused as to why Marks was not credited for a rushing touchdown.

It is pretty strange to see. But ESPN and other fantasy companies have the ability to change the ruling again at any given time. It will be quite interesting to see if that happens and how it swings the outcomes of fantasy football championship runs across the NFL’s fans.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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