Chiefs vs. Texans 2017 live updates: Scores, highlights, and results for ‘Sunday Night Football’

Two of the most exciting teams in the NFL square off Sunday night. Deshaun Watson tied his own rookie record that he set last week with five touchdown passes, but it wasn’t enough against the Chiefs. Kansas City stays perfect with the 42-34 win.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 42, Texans 34

Deshaun Watson launching bombs down the field for his wide receivers to come down with isn’t a bad plan for the Texans.

Watson threw a 42-yard pass up to Stephen Anderson, who brought it down at the 1. As time expired, Watson hit DeAndre Hopkins in the end zone for the third time in the game.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 42, Texans 26

Harrison Butker wrapped up his busy night with his fifth field goal.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 39, Texans 26

Deshaun Watson, still incredible:

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 39, Texans 20

Maybe don’t punt to Tyreek Hill, who ran it back for 82 yards and threw up the deuces again.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 32, Texans 20

And the Chiefs answered right back on a De’Anthony Thomas 10-yard jet sweep score (though the two-point conversion attempt failed). This offense is fun to watch.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 26, Texans 20

Deshaun Watson, my god:

And suddenly, it’s a one-score game.

Fourth quarter: Chiefs 26, Texans 13

Travis Kelce is getting evaluated for a concussion, and the Chiefs’ offense misses him .. but not enough that they can’t add another field gold.

There’s still almost a full quarter left, but one member of the Chiefs is feeling confident that the W is locked up:

Third quarter: Chiefs 23, Texans 13

More good news, bad news for the Texans.

Good: Deshaun Watson connected with Will Fuller on fourth down for a 9-yard touchdown.

Bad: The two-point conversion failed.

Worse: J.J. Watt is out for the season, and frankly, that sucks.

Third quarter: Chiefs 23, Texans 7

What’s this? The Chiefs are punting? Can they do that?

No scoring so far this half, but keep an eye on Kareem Hunt, who has more second-half rushing yards than any player has this season.

Halftime: Chiefs 23, Texans 7

Alex Smith picked the Texans’ defense apart, leading Kansas City on a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive right before halftime. He was aided by two personal fouls against Houston, one against Marcus Gilchrist for an unnecessary roughness hit on Travis Kelce and another on Jadeveon Clowney for roughing the passer.

Charcandrick West reacted to his second touchdown of the night with this season’s sassiest touchdown celebration:

Second quarter: Chiefs 16, Texans 7

The Texans finally got moving on offense, thanks mostly to their ground game. D’onta Foreman made up for his earlier fumble with a 25-yard run.

Then DeAndre Hopkins finally got a touch, and surprise, it was a tip-toeing touchdown catch.

Second quarter: Chiefs 16, Texans 0

Good news for Houston: The defense forced a three-and-out.

Bad news: Harrison Butker is still “butt kicker dot com.”

Second quarter: Chiefs 13, Texans 0

This game has quickly turned into a disaster for the Texans. On their next drive, D’onta Foreman fumbled, which was recovered by the Chiefs. Only Deshaun Watson’s tackle on Derrick Johnson prevented the defense from scoring a touchdown.

Second quarter: Chiefs 13, Texans 0

The Texans went three-and-out, giving the defense barely any time to breathe. The Chiefs marched down the field and Smith scrambled, then fired a bullet to Charcandrick West for an 8-yard score.

Oh, and NBC just gave you a nightmare:

Second quarter: Chiefs 6, Texans 0

So far, the Houston defense has limited Kareem Hunt, but has had bigger issues stopping Alex Smith, particularly without two of their best pass rushers. But a tackle on Travis Kelce preventing a first down by a hair.

Harrison Butker added another field goal for the Chiefs.

First quarter: Chiefs 3, Texans 0

Deshaun Watson picked up two first downs, but the Texans’ first drive stalled after a couple penalties — and Bill O’Brien went a little Hard Knocks on us:

First quarter: Chiefs 3, Texans 0

Alex Smith started off hot on third downs, converting the first three third downs the Chiefs faced. He misfired on their final one, leading to the Chiefs’ field goal, but that wasn’t the big story.

On the same play, Texans superstar J.J. Watt went down with a knee injury and had to be helped off the field. He went to the medical tent and was later carted off. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game with what was diagnosed as a tibial plateau fracture to his left leg.

His teammate Whitney Mercilus also headed to the locker room earlier in the drive. He’s out with a chest injury.

It was a tough scene to start the game, when Chiefs safety Steven Terrell took a hard hit and was down on the field for several minutes. Luckily, he got back on his feet, though he was declared out with a concussion.

The Chiefs are the last unbeaten team standing in the NFL. Can Deshaun Watson continue his meteoric rise and give the 1972 Dolphins a reason to pop their champagne early this year? Tune in at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC (live stream).

Watson proved last week he can be just as deadly in the NFL as he was at Clemson, tying a rookie record by scoring five touchdowns — four passing, one rushing — against the Titans in an AFC South rout. If he can play at even 80 percent of that level, he’ll give Houston the kind of offense that can complement a smothering defense led by J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, and Andre Hal.

That unit will have its hands full with a rejuvenated Kansas City offense, led by a suddenly explosive Alex Smith and league-leading rusher Kareem Hunt. In his 12th season, Smith has emerged as an MVP candidate, albeit in a small sample size. He currently leads the league in passer rating (124.2), completion rate (76 percent), and touchdown rate (6.6 percent) while helming the NFL’s most efficient offense.

The question is whether he can keep that pace. So far, 2017’s stats are a stark outlier compared to the numbers of a quarterback once counted among the game’s most conservative. Smith is on track to post career highs in every major statistical category — and that seems unsustainable.

One factor that could keep him rolling is the play of Hunt, a third-round pick who may wind up being 2017’s biggest draft steal. The rookie tailback is on pace for a 2,000-yard season and averaging 7.4 yards per carry. While his impact will decline as defenses find new ways to stop him, his breakaway speed and ability to find creases give the Chiefs a third home run playmaker alongside Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce.

Watson and Hunt are two impact rookies who promise fireworks on Sunday night. So will the Texans be able to contain the Chiefs’ big play offense? Or will the Chiefs roll to 5-0 by snuffing out the promise of Watson’s rising star?

Reid’s delightful new name for his kicking specialist is a play off Butker’s Twitter handle, @ButtKicker87. The Georgia Tech product, who took over for an injured Cairo Santos, had only 9,800 followers as of publication time, but expect that number to grow after Reid’s post-Monday Night Football name-drop. Butker’s popularity soared early on Tuesday morning — at least in the Chiefs’ locker room.

With J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and others leading one of the NFL’s better defenses, the Texans look like a terrifying contender for the rest of the AFC. The 4-0 Kansas City Chiefs are still the ones to beat in the NFL, but it’s hard to imagine any team is more hopeful about the rest of 2017 after Week 4 than Houston.

The 2017 NFL power rankings for Week 5 are now out and we’re tracking where the No. 1 team in football is ranked. The Kansas City Chiefs are No. 1 basically everywhere...

The Chiefs had something of a tumultuous offseason, with longtime cornerstone players (Jamaal Charles, Dontari Poe, Jeremy Maclin) being shown the door and general manager John Dorsey getting fired just a few weeks before training camp. They drafted Patrick Mahomes in the first round, setting the stage for a potential quarterback controversy with Alex Smith. In the first game of the season, their best defensive player, Eric Berry, suffered a season-ending Achilles tear.

A lot of coaches would have crumbled under those circumstances, but Andy Reid is no ordinary coach.

Rookie rushing yards: Hunt is on pace for 2,008 rushing yards, which is exactly 200 more yards than Eric Dickerson’s record for a rookie running back.

Consecutive games with 100-plus yards from scrimmage to start career: Hunt is the fourth player since 1950 with 100-plus yards from scrimmage in his first four career games.