DETROIT — Jim Schwartz threw a challenge flag when he didn’t need to, and the Texans made him regret it.
Shayne Graham’s 32-yard field goal with 2:21 left in overtime lifted Houston to a 34-31 win over the Lions yesterday after their coach broke an NFL rule by attempting to challenge a scoring play.
“Obviously that’s a big break in the game for us,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. “But I think you make your breaks when you work your tail off.”
Lions kicker Jason Hanson had a chance to get Schwartz off the hook, but his 47-yard field goal attempt on the fifth possession of the extra period hit the right upright.
Lions defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch did, too, on the previous possession when he couldn’t intercept a pass Matt Schaub threw directly at him deep in Texans territory.
Detroit might have won in regulation if its coach didn’t make a costly mistake. Schwartz threw a challenge flag when Houston’s Justin Forsett scored on an 81-yard touchdown run in the third quarter after two Lions tackled him.
“Give him credit for continuing to play football,” Kubiak said. “We talk about that all the time. You don’t stop, you play.”
Replays showed Forsett’s left knee and elbow hit the turf near midfield, and the automatic review that accompanies all scoring plays probably would have taken the TD off the board. But NFL rules say that throwing the challenge flag on a scoring play negates the review — and is an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to boot.
“It’s on me,” Schwartz could be seen saying to assistants and players on the sideline as he tapped his chest. “It’s on me.”
Yes, it was.
Forsett even acknowledged he shouldn’t have been allowed to score.
“I know now that I was down, but I didn’t think I was during the play,” he said. “I didn’t think my knee hit, and there was no whistle, so I kept going.
“I wasn’t giving the touchdown back.”
That score pulled the Texans within three points.
“I knew the rule — you can’t challenge on a turnover or a scoring play — but I was so mad that I overreacted,” said Schwartz, whose temper got the best of him during a postgame handshake last year with 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh. “I had the flag in my hand before he even scored because he was obviously down.”
Kubiak had no sympathy.
“A rule’s a rule,” Kubiak said. “I know one thing: You’ve got to keep your flag tucked in your pocket.”
Arian Foster ran for 102 yards and two scores, including a 1-yard run with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter to cap a 15-play, 97-yard drive that tied the game at 31.
AFC South-leading Houston (10-1) took its first lead when Graham made up for missing a field goal earlier in OT after teammate Danieal Manning ripped the football away from Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew at its 32 on the first drive of the extra period.
The Texans have won five straight — two in a row in OT — and if a handful of teams lose they could be in the playoffs by the time they get back on the practice field after a long weekend.
Detroit (4-7) has lost three straight to make it extremely difficult to reach its goal of earning a spot in consecutive postseasons for the first time since the mid-1990s.