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Higgins helps Raiders end Texans' run

Dec 22, 2008 - 1:57 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Johnnie Lee Higgins gave the small crowd that showed up for the Oakland Raiders' regular-season home finale something to cheer about.

Higgins caught a 29-yard touchdown and scored on an 80-yard punt return, helping the Raiders to a 27-16 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday.

Higgins' punt return, his franchise-record third of the season, gave the Raiders a 27-13 lead with 6:03 left in quarter.

"I feel like I'm explosive. Higgins said. "You never know what's going to happen."

The second-year receiver said there isn't much thought to what he does on the field, especially on the punt return.

"I just catch and run," Higgins said. "Everyone else, they just move people out of the way."

Oakland (4-11) snapped a three-game losing streak and won its home finale for the first time since 2002 - its Super Bowl season.

"We played well in all three phases today," Raiders interim head coach Tom Cable said. "We gave up a couple big plays in the first half on defense, but we settled in there and took care of that. Our defense was much better today."

JaMarcus Russell led an energized offense by completing 18-for-25 for 236 yards with a pair of touchdowns. His 29-yard strike to Higgins put Oakland up, 20-13, with 10:03 left in the third.

"JaMarcus, this is really his best football game. He has been coming," Cable said. "It was just a great effort by our football team."

Vonta Leach had a TD run and Kris Brown kicked three field goals for Houston (7-8), which had its four-game winning streak snapped.

"We didn't play very well at all," Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said. "You have to give them (Raiders) credit. They beat us in all three phases of the game.

"It starts with me. I have to have them ready to play. We didn't play with the same emotion. All the things we said we had to do going into the game, we didn't do any of them."

Oakland, which is the only team in the history of the NFL to lose 11 games in six straight seasons, scored on its first three possessions.

Russell hit Chaz Schilens for a 20-yard score and Sebastian Janikowski kicked field goals of 33 and 30 yards.

Schilens' touchdown catch capped an eight-play, 64-yard drive. He was a late addition to the starting lineup in place of Ronald Curry, who was inactive.

Houston drove 71 yards in six plays and tied it at 7-7 on a 1-yard run by Leach.

Brown added field goals of 53 and 24 yards to knot the score at 13-13 at halftime. Brown accounted for Houston's only points of the second half, connecting on a 40-yard field goal and establishing a franchise single-season record for points with 117.

Houston quarterback Matt Schaub finished the game 19-of-36 for 255 yards and one interception.

The Texans managed 324 yards of total offense, but were only able to find the end zone once, even after recovering an Oakland fumble on the Raiders' 14-yard line with 9:34 remaining.

Houston failed to pick up a first down after attempting a fourth-down pass that fell incomplete in the end zone.

"We got down to the red zone and weren't capitalizing on our opportunities," Schaub said. "We had a couple of field goals. It is inexcusable. They executed their plan."