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Houston turned NRG into C.J.’s lab on Sunday. The Texans toppled the 49ers 26-15 behind a surgeon’s table from C.J. Stroud (30/39, 318 yards, 2 TD; 30 rush yards) and a clock-chewing ground game that stacked up 157 rushing yards on the day. It had a little extra spice, too — a pupil-vs-mentor chess match with DeMeco Ryans squaring off against Kyle Shanahan for the first time this week. (espn.com)

Houston set the tone early with two Ka’imi Fairbairn field goals, then struck gold when Stroud dropped a 12-yard laser to Jayden Higgins for a 16-0 cushion. San Francisco finally cracked the code right before the half — Mac Jones (19/32, 193 yards, 2 TD) hit George Kittle (4/43, TD) from 17 yards to make it 16-7 — but the Texans answered after the break with a haymaker: Stroud to Xavier Hutchinson (5/69, TD) on a 30-yard rainbow to stretch it to 23-7. The Niners countered with a tidy red-zone drive capped by Jake Tonges from two yards plus the two-pointer, trimming it to 23-15 and giving us some fourth-quarter juice.

That’s when Houston slammed the door. Swiss-army rookie Woody Marks (11 carries, 62 yards; 4 catches, 49 yards) kept gashing — remember that earlier 50-yard catch-and-run that lit the fuse — and the Texans bullied their way into position for Fairbairn’s fourth boot to make it 26-15. With the game in scramble mode, Kamari Lassiter jumped a sideline throw to snuff a late Niners push, and the closer came courtesy of a tag-team sack from Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. that iced the final seconds. Credit Houston’s defense for bottling the run — the Niners mustered just 48 rushing yards — and forcing Jones to live on underneath stuff to Jauan Jennings (4/45) and Kendrick Bourne (3/44).

Big Dill of the Game: C.J. Stroud. The kid diced up zones, won with rhythm and ball placement, and spread it around to eight targets while piloting a 475-yard Texans party against a proud Niners unit. That’s the show, folks — I’m Dillon “Big Dill” Smith, and on Big Dill Sports, ballin’ is always a big dill. Catch you next week.