Ravens pull off NFL rarity by holding Texans to two points: Here’s how rare it is for a team to score just two

The Baltimore Ravens picked up one of the most dominating wins by any team this season on Wednesday in a game where they destroyed the Houston Texans, 31-2. And no, that is not a typo, the Texans only scored two points. It was a a Christmas Day disaster. 

The Texans only points of the game came in the second quarter when Kamari Lassiter tackled Derrick Henry in the end zone for a four-yard loss. 

The play by Lassiter cut Baltimore’s lead to 10-2, but it was all Ravens after that. 

The Texans drove into field goal range on two other possessions in the game, but both of those drives ended with a failed fourth down instead of a field goal, which is how Houston ended up only scoring two points. 

In the first 10 years of the NFL’s existence, it was somewhat common to see a team score exactly two points — it happened 15 times in the league’s first decade — but in modern times, it almost never happens. As a matter of fact, the Ravens became just the second team over the past 30 years to hold an opponent to exactly two points in a regular-season game. 

The last time it happened came in September 2013 when the Chiefs beat the Jaguars, 27-2, in the season opener for both teams. Before that, no team had been held to exactly two points since December 1993 when the Patriots beat the Bengals, 7-2. 

Going into Wednesday’s game, there had only been seven instances of a team scoring exactly two points since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. 

Dec. 12, 1970: Cowboys 6-2 over Browns
Oct. 1, 1972: 49ers 37-2 over Saints
Dec. 17, 1972: Steelers 24-2 over Chargers
Dec. 14, 1980: Patriots 24-2 over Bills
Dec. 5, 1983: Lions 13-2 over Vikings
Dec. 12, 1993: Patriots 7-2 over Bengals
Sept. 8, 2013: Chiefs 27-2 over Jaguars

In that same span, it has also happened once in the playoffs and that came in January 2012 when the Giants beat the Falcons, 24-2, in the wild-card round. Speaking of the playoffs, the loss to Baltimore locked up the four-seed for Houston, which means the Texans will be hosting a game on wild-card weekend. 

The Ravens have given up at least 23 points to 10 different opponents this year so the fact that the Texans were only able to score two is definitely a troubling look for a team that will soon be headed to the postseason. The bad news for the Texans is that if we go all the way back to 1950, no team has ever won a playoff game in the same season where they were held to two points in a game.