Can the Texans have a normal game? Will the Texans ever have a predictable game? No matter – one
Houston opened up the game on a heater, the offense appearing to pick up right where they left off last week against the L.A. Chargers. Following a Browns three-and-out to open the game, CJ Stroud and the Texans offense marched downfield, with multiple impressive passes to WRs Nico Collins and Xavier Hutchinson, capping off the drive with a wonderful touchdown pass to Nico Collins, who beat Browns DBs
Tyson Campbell and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren for the score.
Following the Texans touchdown drive, the Browns would go three-and-out again thanks to pressure from Sheldon Rankins, Will Anderson, and a good tackle by CB Kamari Lassiter on third down. The Texans would march downfield yet again on the ensuing drive, with Stroud successfully targeting Nico Collins and Xavier Hutchinson yet again. However, Browns LB Quincy Williams puts an end to this Texans drive in the Browns side of the field, and the Texans held to a field goal, now leading 10-0 with 4:25 left in the first quarter.
The Browns follow that drive up with another punt of their own! Now, if you’re a Texans fan, you’re starting to get the same feeling you had at the beginning of the Chargers game. Are the Texans going to stamp out the Browns in the first half of the game and make the entire second half a laugher? Well, after the Texans went on a nine-play 75-yard touchdown drive to make the score 17-0 in the second quarter, I know I was sure feeling like that! I was jumping around, high-fiving my sister, getting on with life like the Texans were going were about to put this game away. Just another successful drive or two in the second half, and this game should be over!
Oh how wrong, how very, very wrong I was.
Immediately following that Texans touchdown drive, the Browns would responded by making two explosive plays: a 17-yard pass to TE Harold Fannin, and then a 20-yard run by QB Deshaun Watson himself. These were the only “good” plays Cleveland made on this offensive drive, but they would be a harbinger of future big plays to come. Backup LB Jake Hansen, filling in for an injured Azeez Al-Shaair, just wasn’t big enough to bring down Fannin on his own, nor fast enough to seal the edge on Watson on the ensuing rush, and those two plays led to Cleveland’s first score, a field goal to make it 17-3.
Still a nice lead for the Texans. All they need to do is continue targeting Collins and put a few positive plays together and they should score again! Well, targeting Collins worked on the first handful of plays, but Houston’s first of many penalties pushed them back five years, and a negative play on Tank Dell forced by Browns LB Carson Schwesinger forced Houston make their first punt of the game with a little more than five minutes left in the first half.
The Browns wouldn’t need five minutes to remind the country of how bad the Texans defense can be at times. They only needed 53 seconds. Watson dialed up a 65-yard deep ball to a wide open Jerry Jeudy, who cooked Texans S M.J. Stewart for a big gain. One play later, and Deshaun Watson was streaking into the endzone for the Browns first touchdown, cutting the Texans lead to to just seven points. Six plays later, and the Browns were getting the ball back, courtesy of a CJ Stroud interception. Panic time!!!
Granted, I don’t blame Stroud for targeting Collins in this circumstance, and I’m not entirely sure how this isn’t considered defensive pass interference, but regardless, this went down as an interception for Browns CB Tyson Campbell, giving the Browns the ball back with under a minute left in the second half. Watson would immediately start successfully targeting Jake Hansen again, who struggled to cover Cleveland’s RBs all game, and Kamari Lassiter gave up a big pass to Browns’ rookie WR Denzel Boston. At this point, with 16 seconds left in the half and at midfield, Watson targeted Jerry Jeudy, who was left wide open once again by M.J. Stewart, but fortunately dropped the pass before he could walk it in for the game-tying touchdown. Deshaun Watson would run forward, fumble, and then have his lineman recover his fumble to end the half, and Houston was left counting its lucky stars to still have the lead entering halftime.
At this point, my wish for a game like last week was gone, and it was replaced by the nightmares of the big plays the Texans’ defense gave up in the Bills game, the Cowboys game, and the dreaded Giants game. M.J. Stewart and Jake Hansen couldn’t cover anyone in that second half, how were the Texans going to escape this game? It would take CJ Stroud donning his Superman cape once again to deliver the Texans from defeat in the second half, and even if he was intercepted targeting Nico Collins, I thought their connection was going to save Houston in the end.
How wrong I was, again! Coming out of halftime, the Browns had adjusted their defense to put more bodies in Nico Collins’ general vicinity, and were able to get far more pressure on Stroud coming out of the first half. The Texans offense completely cratered in the second half, going three-and-out four times in a row, only completing a single pass for that entire stretch of time, and the biggest play – a three-yard run by RB Woody Marks on second down with 12:21 left in the third quarter – resulted in Woody Marks potentially suffering a concussion and needing to leave the game after an injury timeout, and was immediately followed up with a false start penalty on LT Aireontae Ersery, who then gave up a sack on the very next play. The Browns followed that nightmare drive up with their game-tying touchdown drive, which featured M.J. Stewart giving up a eight-yard catch to Browns WR KC Concepcion, then giving up a seven-yard catch to Harold Fannin, which he then followed up by incurring seven-yard penalty by trying to tackle Fannin by his FACEMASK.
Now, the moon is crashing down on us. KC Concepcion runs it in for a touchdown to tie the game up with 8:35 left in the third quarter, and it feeling of impending doom is here. The Texans go three-and-out for the time in a row in the second half (of course), and then the Browns start marching with the ball yet again, hitting Jeudy, Concepcion, and even Malachi Corley for crucial plays to keep the Browns’ drive alive and the Texans gassed defense on the field.
But, by some sort of miracle, the Texans are able to hold the Browns to a field goal at the end of this drive. Watson was successfully targeting receivers for modest gains, the Browns were able to run the ball with Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, and Watson was even able to rush for some yards himself, but three plays at the Houston eight yard line went nowhere. The first play was a Judkins run that was quickly swallowed up by rookie DT Kayden McDonald, the second play a quick pass to Browns receiver Denzel Boston that was deflection by DE Dominique Robinson, and the 3rd & Goal play was highlighted by M.J. Stewart redeeming himself with a perfectly timed safety blitz that forced Watson into an incompletion. Thanks to the Texans defense bending but not breaking, the Browns only had a 20-17 lead entering the fourth quarter.
And now, it was time for MVP Stroud to come out!
Nope! A three-yard CHUM to backup RB Emari Demercado to start the drive, followed up by two incomplete passes from Stroud and the Texans offense was walking off the field yet again. Here comes the Browns offense to potentially put the game away by jamming the ball down the Texans’ throat…but, the Texans defense would not give in! They did give up a dump-off pass to Quinshon Judkins that went for 21 yards, but they tightened up at midfield, pressured Watson into a few incompletions, and then DE Jadeveon Clowney pushed him off the field on third down! The Texans defense got a second wind, and the Texans were getting the ball back only down four after Browns kicker Andre Szmyt missed the 54-yard field goal!
Our kicker could NEVER!
Now, the Texans offense was getting the ball back at midfield and with a chance to take the lead. Ersery gets the party started with his second false-start penatly of the game, and then Stroud throws two incomplete passes, and now you’re wondering why you got your hopes up in the first place. On third and 15, CJ Stroud throws up a prayer to Xavier Hutchinson, which gets intercepted by McNeil-Warren, and it seems like its time to throw up your hands and give up hope, but then the heavens ANSWER once again with a defensive pass interference call on Cleveland CB Myles Harden, pulling the Texans offense out of their grave and setting them up with first and 10 at the Cleveland 24! Three plays later, and CJ Stroud finds TE Dalton Schultz open in the end zone for a touchdown! Houston – following a 40-yard extra-point kick because of Nico Collins’ excessive celebration following the touchdown – now had the lead, 24-20 with under ten minutes left in the game.
The Browns get the ball back, and it suddenly feels like the Texans’ defense is playing with some momentum. On the first play, Will Anderson blasts through the line and sacks Deshaun Watson for a nine-yard loss, but the Browns respond by targeting Harold Fannin twice in a row, who’s able to convert on third down by running straight through M.J. Stewart. Watson then baits Will Anderson into a neutral zone infraction on the following third down, setting up thr Browns with a new set of downs in Houston territory. The Browns start inching their way deeper into Texans territory again, and…INTERCEPTED! Watson throws a little over the hands of his TE Blake Whiteheart, and the ball bounces off his hands and into the waiting arms of Texans S Calen Bullock:
This is Bullock’s second interception of the season, and could not have been better timed! With only 5:12 left in the game, the Texans were set up to put this game away with one final drive, and…another three-and-out. This was now Houston’s fifth three-and-out of the second half, and it wouldn’t even be the last! The Browns would go three-and-out themselves on their possession (thank you, Will Anderson and Logan Hall), and then the Texans would go three-and-out for a sixth time with only 1:49 left in the game. On both the fifth and sixth Texans possession, CJ Stroud actually had a receiver open on third down, but both of his passes on those downs were a little off, and both passes (one to Collins, one to Schultz) fell incomplete.
It was like nobody wanted to win this game for a minute, but on the ensuing Cleveland possession with under two minutes left, the Texans’ defense would finally get back to their old ways, with Kamari Lassiter giving up a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty while trying to pull in an interception, and then giving up a 30-yard reception to Harold Fannin, who once again could not be covered by M.J. Stewart and Jake Hansen. Quinshon Judkins would punch it in for a five-yard touchdown following that play, giving the Browns a 27-24 lead with just 53 seconds left.
But, the Texans still had two timeout and 53 seconds, and all they needed was a field goal! It may have been an ugly second half, but they could wash it all away with a good drive here. They went nowhere. They got backed up to their own fifteen yard line because of another penalty on special teams, and would only complete one pass on six attempts. They actually were able to complete a deep pass to Nico Collins on 4th and 10, but that was washed away by LG Febechi Nwaiwu first and only offensive holding penalty, writing a fitting end to this game where the Texans simply could not get out of their own way in the second half.
The Texans lost to the Browns 27-24, falling to 3-6 and effectively ending their season. The Browns and Texans are both in the AFC wildcard race, and with this loss, the Texans playoff chances will plummet. The defense may have had difficulty covering Cleveland’s best receivers, and they may have had a hard time containing Deshaun Watson – who appeared to be as athletic as he ever was in Houston. But, at the end of the game, when the Texans needed a stop, their defense gave them three of them. The offense, which had been lighting up the Browns defense just an hour ago, could now barely hold off the pressure coming from DE Isiah McGuire or LBs Quicy Williams and Carson Schwesinger. They combined with sticky coverage from CBs Tyson Campbell, Denzel Ward, and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren to make life a living hell for Stroud in the second half, and he could not find the time or the opportunity to hit his talented receivers who were running so freely in the first half. As the passing offense fell back down the earth and the pressure on Stroud kept mounting, the momentum kept mounting on the Browns side of the ball, and even with a last-ditch effort courtesy of the Texans defensive-line, Houston could still not find a way to win.
If I had to give out game balls for this loss, I’d give them to Will Anderson, Jalen Pitre, and Calen Bullock on defense, and CJ Stroud, Nico Collins, and Xavier Hutchinson on offense. Anderson, Pitre, and Bullock kept the Texans in the game when all was thought to be lost, and Stroud and his duo of receivers were the best part of the offense…until the Browns put an end to that show in the second half. You leave this game wondering if this offense – which is capable of so much in spurts – will ever be able to find its footing with an offensive line that just can’t be trusted. Once again, for the fourth year in a row, the debate surrounding what is wrong with the Texans will float around the question of their offensive line, and we will have to wonder if the Texans squandered their Super Bowl window by failing to get this position group squared away sooner.
What do you think, though? Was this the most disappointing loss in recent Texans history? Y’know…besides last year? Or, will this loss eventually lead Houston to becoming a better team in December? Will they get a star lineman in the draft, or will they mount a comeback season? It’s time to let it all out, as the season is probably over. Let us know your thoughts, and, as always…GO TEXANS!!!
