BEREA — The first question was the obvious one to Amari Cooper on Wednesday. It was about the heel injury that had forced the Browns wide receiver to miss consecutive games for the first time since 2021.

“It's getting better every day," Cooper said. "Yeah, just getting better every day. I'm running around now. So it's just a typical injury that you have to work through.”

That was the first obvious question. The second question, considering the Browns are getting ready to go back to Houston to face the Texans in Saturday's AFC wild card game, was just as obvious.

Considering the fact Cooper hung a Browns-record 265 receiving yards on the Texans not even three weeks ago, he has to be expecting at least something a little different out of Houston's defense in the rematch, right?

“I don't know," Cooper said. "I mean, I can't predict that. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.”

The amazing part about the record-setting day Cooper had on Christmas Eve in the Browns' 36-22 win was that he did most of his damage while battling the heel injury. He said the injury occurred on his second catch, a 22-yard completion.

That means Cooper, whose first catch of the day went for 53 yards, had 190 yards on nine catches and two touchdowns while struggling a bit with the heel injury. That included a 75-yard second-quarter touchdown catch on which one can see him come up a bit gimpy as he's running into the end zone.

“Amari is a great player," Texans coach DeMeco Ryans told Houston reporters Tuesday. "Made a ton of great catches, unbelievable catches in that game, and we were in position. We’ve just got to be able to finish and make a play on the ball.”

On the 75-yard touchdown, Cooper beat cornerback D'Angelo Ross, who had come in because starter Steven Nelson had left with an injury. The Texans primarily played a lot of quarter coverage in the secondary, which Cooper and quarterback Joe Flacco were able to exploit for record numbers then and could, if the connection's still there, do it again in the playoffs.

Cooper, though, wonders if that's really Houston's way of doing things in general.

"I mean, Houston, they're not really a man team, so I think the chances of them using a player to shadow me is a little bit less than what it would be if they were a man team," Cooper said. "But you never know for the playoffs. Like I said before, teams game plan and they're willing to do whatever they have to do to win. We'll just see."

Cooper acknowledges he likely wouldn't have missed any time had the Browns' final two regular-season games been normal either in date or stakes. He was ruled out 90 minutes before a Week 17 game against the New York Jets, which was played just four days after the Houston game.

The regular-season finale at the Cincinnati Bengals was meaningless, leading coach Kevin Stefanski to rest a large percentage of his players, including Cooper. He had also received a fourth-quarter break in Houston, during which time Cooper lobbied Stefanski to put him back in the game, not because of the record but because he thought he could reach 300 receiving yards.

“Yeah, there was a lot of time left, man," Cooper said immediately after the game. "A lot of food on the plate there. So, yeah, I was kind of anxious a little bit for sure.”

Cooper eventually returned to the game with 4:10 remaining, and he set the record with a 13-yard fourth-down catch with 3:44 remaining.

Now healthy, or reasonably so, Cooper returns to Houston knowing what he did not too long ago. He also knows, especially considering it's the playoffs, the past is the past, and dwelling on that could start the offseason much quicker than expected.

"I mean, records are meant to be broken," Cooper said. "At the end of the day, it's just numbers. I don't take it for granted, but, I mean, it's the past and I always tell myself I want to look back on my career in that nostalgic type of way that I think you're alluding to after I'm done.”

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Amari Cooper not guessing if Texans will change after record game