Life as a fan of the Houston Texans is all about tempering expectations. They don’t seem to bump along the runway forever, but can’t seem to maintain cruising altitude either. We’ve all seen them light up an opponent one week, then struggle and fall the next. This begs the question: which version of the Texans takes the field against the Cleveland Browns this Sunday?
Do you think this team is about to go on a winning streak that ends in the playoffs? Or, will they pull out the old-reliable jumbo offense,
forgot-how-to-tackle defense and let former Texans quarterback Deshawn Watson lead his Brownies to a win?
Vote:
Personally, I think the Browns are going down.
We told you so!
First off, for all the people out there who raged about C.J. Stroud over the off-season. For the ones who called him trash, wanted him gone, swore up and down he was the worst QB on earth: you were so, soooo wrong.
So wrong.
After the absolute clinic he put on last weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers, throwing 35 passes for 21 completions, 384 yards, 125.5 passer rating, 5 touchdowns and only 1 interception, Stroud took home his 2nd AFC Player of the Week honor. He’s now the only player in the league to win it twice this season.
Still not convinced? Think Stroud’s game was a fluke? Doubling down on your silly belief that he isn’t all that? How about this:
Now that we’ve established Stroud is clearly not the problem, let’s take another minute to bask in the glory of it all:
Ok, now that we’ve settled that. Time to look ahead.
Houston Texans vs. Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are currently 5-4, have the 29th ranked offense, 17th ranked defense and lost a nail biter last weekend to the New Orleans Saints 22-23. At first glance, it seems like this should be a close game, particularly with Watson facing the team that dumped him in Cleveland with no bus fare back to H-Town.
However, the Browns offense doesn’t have the stroke to stop Will Anderson Jr. and 10 of his best friends.
Spencer Fano and (former Texans) Tytus Howard are currently ranked as #1 and #2 worse tackles in the NFL. For every Juice Scruggs who leaves the Nick Caley system to overachieve elsewhere, there’s a Tytus Howard who makes Caserio look like a genius for shedding him as one of the last vestiges of Bill O’Brien’s GM incompetence.
Anderson Jr. is currently the NFL’s leading sack-master, with 9.5 on the season. Browns left tackle Fano has given up 8.5 sacks. Watson was sacked 62 times in his 2018 campaign with the Texans. While a lot of those were poor blocking and bad scheming, quite a few were on Watson for holding the ball too long.
Hold the ball too long this Sunday, with Fano trying to ward off Anderson Jr. as Howard looks to stop Danielle Hunter, Sheldon Rankins and/or Jadeveon Clowney and Watson is going to have a long, long day.
It’s honestly possible for the Texans defense to top last week’s 8 sacks when facing off against the Browns’s tackles. The 8 qb drops ties a team record. Could Deshaun Watson go down (pun intended) in the history books as the most sacked QB in a game vs the Texans? That would certainly feel right. 9 sacks? 10? The front 7 has to be drooling at the prospects…
What might stop the good guys from bringing home another dub? Despite Stroud’s amazing effort last week, the Texans still have no run game and no answer at tailback aside from Woody Marks. They let the trade deadline come and go without landing a starting level running back, which also means Caserio didn’t overpay for one. Rumor has it the Indianapolis Colts were holding their breath for a 1st round draft pick in exchange for Jonathan Taylor. Regardless, the Texans head into Cleveland with asmash mouth run game that lacks the capability to smash any mouths.
Another X-factor is the defense. Did Coach Ryans’ back-to-basics tackling drills help refocus this crew? They held the Chargers to only 9 points through the first 3 quarters. LA only made 14 first downs and converted a measly 5 third downs into firsts. For perspective, the Chargers entered last week’s game with the 32nd ranked offense and 20th ranked defense. Marginally worse than the Browns are this week.
Will Caley have a running game or rely solely on Stroud again? Will the defense continue their return to 2025 form or backslide? How these things play out will certainly impact the Monday mood.
Which takes us back to the opening question: are the Texans ascending or pretending? From the looks of things, we’re climbing the hill. Hopefully we’ll still feel that way come Monday morning.
#GoTexans
