CJ Stroud and the Texans offense had enough of the lackluster performances.

After three games where the Houston offense didn’t excel, they went back to the basics and they were determined to turn things around and get back to winning.

It took a whole game and a lot of adversity, but the Texans did just that behind a huge game from Stroud and the offense, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 39-37 behind a last second touchdown drive where the Texans took the lead with just six seconds left in the game.

“Man this was just an exciting, tremendous game,” Stroud said. “A hue credit goes to Jimmy Ward because we’ve lost some one-score games and this week he had us go through two-minutes an extra time to get it down and that was the game. We did it twice and he was the one that led that. You have to be able to win in two minute games and that’s what we were able to do today.”

Stroud broke the single game record for most passing yards by a rookie in NFL history in the matchup and also threw for the third most yards in Texans single game history, throwing for 470 yards and five touchowns without throwing an interception in the matchup.

“It was a gutsy performance from CJ,” said Texas head coach DeMeco Ryans. “It wasn’t all clean, but he gutted it out and made some huge plays and throws. It was a great game all over by the quarterback and receivers and just a really gutsy game for CJ.”

The Texans fell behind and it took the team a while to get into things.

Houston started with the ball but coughed up a fumble on its first drive, giving Tampa Bay a short field which they took advantage of with a 35-yard field goal. Houston came back with a seven play, 75-yard drive which was capped off with a 15-yard touchdown pass from CJ Stroud to Nico Collins but the Bucaneers responded with a touchdown of their own on a 3-yard pass from Baker Mayfield to Cade Otton.

Tampa Bay increased their lead to two scored early in the second quarter with another touchdown on a 1-yard run by Rachaad White before the Texans made a field goal to trim the deficit to one score. Houston got another big stop before halftime, but the offense wasn’t able to make anything of it with Houston going into the locker room down 17-10.

Houston came to life in the second half of the game though and looked like a different team.

Tampa Bay started the third quarter by getting a field goal, but the Texans responded just one play after, with Stroud throwing a 75-yard touchdown to Noah Brown on the team’s first play from scrimmage in the second half. The Buccaneers got the ball to midfield again and had to setle for a long field goal befor the Texans came back with another touchdown drive capped off by a 29-yard pass from Stroud to Tank Dell that made things a one-point game after a failed two point conversion which was necessary after Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn went down with an injury.

Houston kept its offensive improvements going and took the lead early in the fourth quarter when Stroud found Dalton Schultz for a 9-yard touchdown on a fourth and goal, with Stroud punching in a two-point conversion to make it a seven-point lead. But Tampa Bay came right back to score a touchdown and tie things up. The Texans defense stepped up once again to stop a Buccaneers drive before Houston drove down the field and backup running back Dare Ogunbowae stepped up to kick a 29-yard field goal and put the Texans back in front, but the Houston defense faltered on the Buccaneers final drive of the game, allowing Tampa Bay to convert a first down when the team had a third and 23 before Mayfield found Otton for the second time in the game and Tampa Bay went ahead with just 46 seconds left in the game. But Houston came back with their biggest drive of the game, going 75 yards in six plays and only needing 40 seconds to get down the field and score on a 9-yard pass from Stroud to Dell with just six seconds left in the game to give the Texans their fourth win of the year and get Houston back to .500.

The win puts Houston two games back of Jacksonville in the AFC South standings. The Texans will be on the road next week as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals in a very tough matchup.

“We just gained that confidence this week through practice and we have to keep that going,” Stroud said. “It’s all about that trust in the offense and we had that. We knew we should have done better against the Panthers and we fixed some things. We just have to keep that going.”