The 2025 season started with a thud as the Houston Texans lost to the Los Angeles Rams 14-9. It was a lackluster defensive effort as the offense spotted the defense nine whole points and a two point lead going into the second half. The defense wasn’t able to shut out a Hall of Fame quarterback in the second half, so the team loses its first game of the 2025 season. Okay, I can’t keep that farce going. This game was an obvious offensive failure as Nick Caley and company will need to go back to the drawing
board before week two.
There were certainly moments in the first half offensively. Stroud utilized more short passes than last year to keep some drives going and he was able to use his legs to extend some other drives. There were a few good Nick Chubb runs and the Fairbairn had three good kicks to put the team up going into halftime. That was the last time they would put points on the board.
This is a reminder that we look at the numbers every week to see which numbers correlate best between winning and losing. We also want to see if there are any patterns we notice overall in the team’s performance. Obviously, we won’t know that after week one, but by the time we get through the first month of the season I am sure we will begin to see some commonalities.
The Numbers
- Total Yards: Texans 265, Rams 296
- Rushing Yards: Texans 27/114, Rams 25/72
- Passing Yards: Texans 30/151, Rams 27/154
- Sacks: Texans 3, Rams 3
- Turnovers: Texans 2, Rams 1
- Penalties: Texans 11/80, Rams 7/60
- Time of Possession: Texans 31:25, Rams 28:35
The Texans actually ran the ball fairly well. They averaged more than four yards a carry and that included Chubb and his 60 yards rushing. If he continues at that pace he will have more than 1000 yards rushing. Stroud obviously contributed with some timely runs in the first half that extended drives. The running game actually helped sustain some drives and helped them win the time of possession battle. That is the only major battle that they won.
Everyone will focus on the turnover battle and rightfully so, but the passing game was just not good enough on this day. The Rams limited Nico Collins to three catches and 25 yards and no one else was there to pick up the slack. Certainly, while Joe Mixon and Christian Kirk are out, the Rams gave every NFL team a blueprint on how to beat the Texans. You make someone else beat you and as they have demonstrated numerous times over the last year, there is no one there to do it.
The Good
On balance, this was a very good performance by the defense. They are not the 1985 Bears or the 2000 Ravens, but they play a punishing brand of football and I guarantee the Rams will be feeling it for several days. They struggled against Puka Nacua, but so do most teams. Clearly, Devante Adams did not kill them and the running game didn’t kill them either.
They gave up the third quarter touchdown and kept the Rams off the scoreboard the rest of the way. They gave the offense an opportunity to mount a drive and win the game. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Needless to say, my introduction was clearly tongue in cheek. If you hold your opponent to 14 points you should win the game. If the Texans defense gives them this kind of effort for 17 weeks they should be a winning team. If they aren’t there will be major changes in store.
The Bad
Unfortunately, bad is a relative term. The official Stroud numbers say he was 19 for 27 with 188 yards passing. He added over 30 yards on the ground. That’s close to a 67 percent completion percentage and nearly seven yards per attempt. Those aren’t terrible numbers. Most people would even say they aren’t bad numbers. They just aren’t good numbers and when your team doesn’t get in the end zone they are glaringly not good enough.
This is especially true for the quarterback that wants 60 million a season or more. Those quarterbacks have to do something to overcome whatever is going on to lead their team to the end zone. Wins and losses are a hard way to judge a quarterback. Those would say Joe Burrow was a bad quarterback last season. We know that’s not the case. Yet, when your defense holds the opponent to 14 points you have to find a way to win the game. If you don’t and you don’t consistently then you aren’t worth 60 million dollars.
This is just one football game. All of the all-time greats had duds in their career. Time will tell whether this is just one of those duds or whether it is a harbinger of things to come. It is also obvious that he is not alone in this situation. Other people on that offense and the offensive staff bear some responsibility here, but Stroud is going to have to be better for this team to get where it wants to go.
The Ugly
Two off-seasons in a row, Nick Caserio has neglected to invest major capital in the offensive line. Yes, he did add a second round pick, but he also traded his best lineman and added a group of journeymen to replace three other spots on the line. Instead of investing in the line, he added a new offensive line coach that was already on the staff and a new offensive coordinator. Everyone was talking about how things were different. They were communicating better. Less was being asked of them. Stroud was going to dump it off more and check down quicker. Everything sounded so good.
Week one looked a lot like the last seventeen or so games from last season. There were blown assignments. Sometimes they were just beat like rented mules. Sometimes Stroud held the ball too long. We can talk in circles until I get blue in the face and throw up in the bathroom. The Giants and Dolphins were the only teams to score less. That includes some of the worst teams in football.
Like Stroud, Caserio may have gotten a pass last season since the club did win the division and advance to the divisional round. He may have gotten a pass because no one could have predicted that Juice Scruggs, Shaq Mason, and Kenyon Green all sucked. Actually, some of us actually asked whether at least one if not more of those guys were going to suck. Either way, like Stroud he does not get that excuse again. You don’t get to pay for a line with the change you find in the couch cushion and express shock when it doesn’t work. That excuse won’t work anymore. It shouldn’t have worked last year.
