The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Week 9:
Goal line/Short Yardage offense…Ouuuccchhhh. Perhaps the most painful part of this game comes from the first half, when the Texans, holding all the momentum, could not score a TD in two drives that had them inside the Denver 2-yard line. The first time saw three straight running
plays (one RB dive to Chubb and two FB dives to Brooks(???)). A fourth running play, a QB sneak, appeared the call on 4th and Goal from the 1, but then a false start pushed Houston back to the Denver 5-yard line, setting up a chip shot FG. The second time Houston got to the Denver 2-yard line, they tried a Mills sneak for no gain (I guess the giraffe neck didn’t extend far enough), and a short pass to Collins for 1-yard gain, only to see that negated by a holding call. The Texans would not get any closer to an actual TD. In the Tampa game, Houston maybe threw too much, but here, a play-action/roll out might have worked once. Stroud is mobile enough. Maybe if no holding call and Stroud gets the sneak, different story. The second drive, again, the creativity is sorely lacking. Penalties again killed options, but 5 plays inside the 2 and…nothing. At this point in the season, this is no longer inexperience. This is incompetence.
The Bane of the Texans’ D: The QB Scramble: If this season turns into a lost year for what is shaping up to be perhaps the best defense in Texans’ history, two plays will stand out. Both involved QB scrambles on walk-off drives for the opposing teams. One was the Baker Mayfield 15-yard scramble on Monday Night, benefited by a bad LB blitz angle. The other will be the Bo Nix 25-yard scramble that put Denver in FG range. To that point in the game, the defense was holding on, especially since the offense failed to do anything. However, as Houston went into zone coverage, they only rushed four. However, with no effective QB spy, Nix easily slipped past the base DL rush and ran to the left of the field, with a ton of space. By the time he stopped running, Denver flipped the field, and a tired defense effectively broke. Arguably, the LB unit is the weakest part of the D, but collectively, they’ve been solid. However, this was another 4th quarter fail by this unit, especially when it was sorely needed.
The Critical Play of the Game:
1 & 10, HOU 48, 11:10, 4th quarter
Having completed only the second 1st down of the half (and ultimately, the last Texans’ 1st down), Houston found itself is solid field position. Denver had tied the game on the previous drive, so Houston was under pressure to respond. On 1st and 10, Mills took the snap out of shotgun, dropping back. There was a rush, but not any undue pressure. He saw Nico Collins breaking open in the deep middle/left part of the field. However, his internal clock may have given him false information. Mills stepped up a launched a deep pass…that missed a wide-open Collins by at least 2-3 yards. The ball fell harmlessly incomplete. However, Houston’s momentum effectively died from there. A delay of game and two incompletions forced Houston to punt the ball. The offense did not come close to Denver territory after that. Had Mills connected with Collins, Houston would have had the ball inside the Denver 25, well inside Fairbairn’s range. Plus, a big completion might have been enough to spark something in a morbid Texans’ second-half offense. Either way, a scoring opportunity lost. Credit to Denver’s defense for holding Houston in check, but Mills and Houston missed their chance to win.
Special Teams did their part: Setting aside the patented GLORY TO ALL FG OFFENSE ™, the Houston special teams did enough to win this game. Yes, Fairbairn missed a critical 51-yard FG on the opening drive, which factored in the final result, but he provided all 15 points for the squad. Additionally, Autry logged his second FG block of the season, setting up Houston’s 1st scoring drive (see earlier discussion points). Jaylin Smith logged a fumble recovery that set up another Houston scoring chance. For all of Houston’s second half struggles, the one scoring drive came from Noel’s dynamic 45-yard punt return. Townsend had a solid day at the office (8 punts, 52.5 average, 2 inside the 20 with a long of 73), and Denver really didn’t get that much out of their punt/kick returns. Combined with another overall solid effort from the defense, the offense wears the badge of shame out of this matchup.
FUN WITH NUMBERS:
2: Total Number of 1st downs of the Houston offense in the 2nd half. Even if the Houston defense, great as it is, was channeling the best of the 1985 Bears/2000 Ravens, only getting 2 first downs in a half is no way to win a game. Especially with a team like Denver, that has a strong defense and a QB known for making things happen in the 4th quarter, you will need a lot more than that.
.539: Combined winning percentage of remaining opponents on the Texans’ schedule. Bad enough that the team is 3-5 and four games back of the division, but if Houston is even going to dream of getting to the Wild Card, they are going to have to do it the hard way. Of their remaining nine opponents, 6 have winning records and all of those have at least 5 wins to this point in the season.
GAME BALLS:
DE Will Anderson Jr.: Another sack for the team MVP. Anderson had the sole sack, but he, along with Hunter, did much to keep Bo Nix’s completion percentage under 50%, which is something that Houston can take away from this performance.
The Former Masthead at The Crawfish Boxes: Been a tough week for some of the best baseball writers out there. Shoutout to them for all of their quality work over the past few years . (Full disclosure, I did some writing for them, but this game ball is for them, not me).
SHOULD BE FORCED TO LISTEN TO ALL OF THE WORST BRANDON PERNA’S JOKES FROM THAT’S GOOD SPORTS ON REPEAT (ESPECIALLY HIS PERSISTENT TRIBUTE TO AMON-RA ST. BROWN) WHILE COMPOSING AN ESSAY ON THE BEST PARTS OF CALEY’S SHORT-YARDAGE PLAYBOOK.
WR Xavier Hutchinson: Logged two brutal holding penalties. The 1st of which pushed Houston outside the Denver 10-yard line on a goal-to-go situation from the 2-yard line. The second negated a solid Chubb 10-yard run in the 4th quarter when the Texans desperately needed something to go right on offense. Effort is fine, but results matter more. His 3 receptions for 30 yards do not even come close to making up for those two penalties.
OC Nick Caley: It is not that every Texans’ loss should be blamed on him, but especially with the nightmare of short-yardage play-calling, that is something that will cost Houston dearly in the end.
QB Davis Mills: Sure, coming in as the relief pitcher in the NFL, especially against a defense like Denver, is not an easy thing. However, this is not Mills’ first, second, or tenth rodeo. He’s done this before. However, the reasons why he will never be more than a backup came to the forefront Sunday. His second half, primarily his bad miss of Collins, attest to that.
While the pain lingers, the season is not stopping. Houston must gear up to try to end their three-game home stand on a winning note, when the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town. Game time is this Sunday at noon CST, with coverage on CBS.
