It was a decoy block. It was an almost block. It wasn't a block at all.
Arian Foster took a toss to the right in the third quarter, found nowhere to go and reversed the field to his left. As he made his way back across the field, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub squared up on Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs (6-3, 260) as if to take him on for a block.
Then Schaub stopped, shuffled his feet and darted to his right, avoiding the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year completely.
"You've always got to be ready for Arian -- Ben (Tate), for that matter -- doing those types of things," Schaub said, laughing before he answered a question about the play. "I saw him cut back and I saw a couple of guys, especially 55 (Suggs), coming at me, and I just wanted to get in the way. His eyes lit up pretty good when he saw me there, so once Arian got around me I knew he was going to get to the first down, so I just tried to get out of the way."
Schaub didn't make any contact with Suggs, but Suggs didn't get to Foster, who got to the edge and picked up a first down on a third-and-three. Foster scored a touchdown three plays later to put the Texans up 36-10 late in the third quarter.
"He asked me about his block, and I told him I didn't think there was much to talk about there," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said.
Wide receiver Andre Johnson said he didn't see the block that never was.
"I saw Matt standing there," Johnson said. "I didn't see that actual block. It was funny because he came to me on the sideline and was like, 'Hey, man, if they're running back toward me, can I cut the guy coming at me?' And I'm like, 'No, man. You can't do that. Just get out of the way.'"
That's exactly what Schaub did.
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