The Texans got off to a bit of a slow start in their Monday night playoff game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. While Aaron Rodgers was able to lead his offense to a field goal in the first quarter, Houston struggled to move the ball and was forced to punt on its first possession. Things went slightly better on the second possession—until a questionable trick play call went disastrously wrong.
The Texans got the ball into Steelers territory with a few minutes to go before the second quarter. At that point, offensive coordinator Nick Caley opted to call a flea flicker. The play started smoothly, with quarterback C.J. Stroud cleanly handing the ball off to Woody Marks. But then things went sideways.
Marks appeared to slip as he tried to turn around to pitch the ball back, which threw off the timing of the play. Then the pitch was high, so Stroud had to leap in the air to grab it. At that point he was under pressure from the pass rush and stepped up, frantically trying to find a receiver. As he drew his arm back to throw the ball he got hit in the arm and fumbled, leading to a Steelers recovery.
It was quite an ugly flea flicker attempt, and led to a key turnover in the early going of the wild-card contest.
Fumble on the flea flicker! Steelers ball ‼️
— NFL (@NFL) January 13, 2026
HOUvsPIT on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/15CIMmJkwO
Not exactly ideal for Houston, and the ugly nature of the sequence led to plentiful jokes from the fans watching.
ban the flea flicker
— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) January 13, 2026
That's like the 3rd time in a couple weeks I've seen a team run the flea flicker and bad things happen afterwards.
— DJ Bien-Aime (@Djbienaime) January 13, 2026
Texans didn’t get the memo that flea flickers haven’t worked in about 10 years
— Garret W. (@garretw5) January 13, 2026
Texans https://t.co/0IK4ny8rNk pic.twitter.com/ZpGdZKhBoQ
— Rockin’ Around The Christmas Terrell (@terrelloglesby7) January 13, 2026
Texans thought a flea flicker would work with their offensive line https://t.co/u2xshMbOwH pic.twitter.com/C6wFJ3reRh
— 🧘🏾♂️ (@bdrip1k) January 13, 2026
OH NO! DISASTER!! WHAT A BAD IDEA @SickosCommittee https://t.co/xtelSnzis4
— Whytfbuddy (@Whytfbuddy) January 13, 2026
Is this the worst executed flea flicker in NFL history? https://t.co/tAbN3OzC50
— Jeremy Branham (@JeremyBranham) January 13, 2026
This is one of the worst plays I've seen this season. What kind of hot potato are they even playing? https://t.co/UyoJeX9p3c
— Mihaela Costache (@Mihaela_tsw) January 13, 2026
This is the slowest fleaflicker that has ever been attempted https://t.co/XGZMkoaM4O
— WoodBFre3 (@WoodBfre3) January 13, 2026
A tough turn of events for the Texans. But they managed to keep the damage to a minimum. The Houston defense forced Pittsburgh into a three-and-out after the fumble recovery. Then the Texans marched down the field to score the first touchdown of the evening.
The Texans will surely take a 7-3 lead despite that mess of a trick play.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Texans’ Disastrous Flea Flicker vs. Steelers Led to Plenty of Jokes From NFL Fans.
