The Texans almost did enough once again. Almost.

Houston put together a strong gameplan and a good game against a great team. They forced turnovers and Davis Mills looked better.

But once again, the Texans came up just short.

Houston held a fourth quarter lead for the fifth time this season, but fell to the Kansas City Chiefs, losing 30-24 in overtime to fall to 1-12-1 after the Texans offense did not do enough to win despite a strong game from the defense.

“We had a chance to win for the second straight week and for the second straight week we just couldn’t finish it out and grab it,” said Texans head coach Lovie Smith. “We’ve played two teams that have a chane to win it all the past couple weeks and it kind of shows us what we can do and what we can be. We had guys step up today and there’s some positives to take. The guys fought and that’s what I expect. But you have to finish games.”

The Texans defense came out and held strong in the first quarter despite being undermanned, holding Kansas City to just 25 yards over the teams first two drives.

The Texans offense took advantage of the strong defensive start by going on an 11-play 80 yard drive   in which they drove the field and milked clock before Davis Mills hit Teagan Quitoraino on an 8-yard pass for a touchdown to give Houston the lead.

The Chiefs responded right back to tie things though, going on a 7-play 75 yard drive before Patrick Mahomes threw a 20-yard touchdown to Jerick McKinnon. The Texans offense was stalled the next drive and forced to punt, but the defense continued to make plays and Mario Addison forced a fumble that the Texans recovered deep in Kansas City territory with a chance to take a lead.

Houston did just that, as Mills broke contain on a play and waltzed in for a 17-yard rushing touchdown, the longest rushing touchdown of his career as the Texans once again built a touchdown lead. The Texans were driving once again late in the first half, but Smith decided to punt on a fourth-and-one from midfield, giving the Chiefs the ball back with four minutes remaining, which Kansas City took advantage of, going on a 13-play, 97 yard drive and scoring a touchdown with 14 seconds left in the half on a 4-yard pass from Mahomes to Maquez Valdez-Scantling, trimming the Texans lead to 14-13 heading into halftime.

“It’s the coaches decision and I understood it,” Mills said. “We had a lead and he wanted to protect it. Obviously there’s hindsight and they went down the field and scored but we had a good punt and pinned them back.”

The Chiefs got the ball first out of the half and immediately went down to take the lead on a 27-yard field goal and Houston was not able to respond, going 3-and-out and punting on its first possession of the half.

But once again, the Texans defense made up for a lackluster offensive drive. Tremon Smith stopped a Chiefs drive by forcing and recovering a fumble by Juju Smith-Schuster and giving the Houston offense the ball back in Kansas City territory. Mills then took the team on a 7-play drive that culminated with his third touchdown of the day, a 12-yard pass to Jordan Akins, giving the Texans a 21-16 lead late in the third quarter.

“Our quarterbacks allowed us to stay right there in the game with one of the best teams in football,” Smith said. “The quarterback play gave us an opportunity and that’s what they needed to do. That’s been talked a lot about but we need to make improvements in a lot of areas.”

After falling behind though, the Chiefs had an answer once again. Mahomes led the team on a 9-play, 84 yard drive before running in a 5-yard touchdown and converting on a 2-point conversion to take a 3-point lead.

The Texans offense came back with a good drive of their own, but the Chiefs held strong in the redzone to force Houston into a 29-yard field goal, ting things up with five minutes remaining in the game, which Mahomes tried to respond to, driving the Chiefs into field goal range before Harrison Butker missed what would have been a 51-yard game winning field goal.

The Chiefs got the ball first to start overtime and were forced into a punt. But Davis Mills fumbled the ball on the first play of the Texans overtime drive, giving the ball back to the Chiefs in field goal range. But the Chiefs did not even need that, as McKinnon took a handoff 26-yards for a touchdown to end the game.

It was yet another game Houston had a chance to win yet couldn’t finish and that is the biggest things that Smith knows they have to work on the rest of the year and fix.

Houston has a short week and will take on the Titans next Saturday in an away matchup.

“We keep giving ourselves a chance to win but we haven’t finished a game offensively,” Smith said. “We put ourselves in good positions through the game, the team played well, but at the end we just couldn’t finish and that’s what we need to be better with. We have to take that next step.”