C.J. Stroud, Nico Collins Connect for Texans' First TD of Season

The Houston Texans finally took the lid off their scoring troubles from Week 1 by starting off Monday Night Football vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with an explosive touchdown from Nico Collins.

Less than four minutes into the first quarter vs. the Buccaneers, C.J. Stroud aired out a beautiful 29-yard pass near the right sideline to Collins to score the Texans' first touchdown of the season, giving Houston an early 7-0 lead.

#Texans getting Nico Collins involved early this week. Houston leads 7-0 over the #Bucs with a productive opening drive.pic.twitter.com/W6yoWz9tev
— Jared Koch (@jjaredkoch) September 15, 2025

The Texans were ensuring to get the ball Collins' way early to start their opening offensive drive. Stroud would target Houston's star receiver for the first play of the game for a pass that would ultimately be incomplete, but minutes later, would make up for it in a major way.

Last week, Collins was limited to just three catches on five total targets for 25 total yards on the day–– an uncharacteristic performance for the Texans' star wideout to open the year against the Los Angeles Rams in a game Houston would fall in, 9-14.

Following Houston's season opener, head coach DeMeco Ryans would attribute Collins' slow start to the game script that transpired vs. the Rams.

"Of course, we want to get the ball to Nico; he's one of our best players," Ryans said after the Texans' loss vs. the Rams. "But, offensively, when you go back to the game on Sunday, we have so many plays where we're kind of playing behind the sticks, and we're not doing things that we're trained to do."

"We're not doing things conducive to staying on track and being able to run our offense in that type of fashion. It's going to be hard to get the ball to a certain player here or there; 2nd-and-18, 2nd-and-10, 3rd-and-long. That's not where you want to operate as an offense."

Now, Stroud and Collins shake off those offensive jitters early into their primetime showing vs. Tampa Bay, and hopefully acts as a sign of things to come throughout the season.

Collins comes off a strong 2024 season where he played in 12 games to log 1,006 total yards through the air on 68 receptions and seven touchdowns.

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