It is the same story as last year, just a few different teams on the record sheet.
The Houston Texans have started the season 0-3 and put themselves in a hole in the division after their 19-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. For the second week in a row, this loss is on the offense, as they could not get anything going for most of the afternoon, except for two drives.
Like last week’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Houston struggled to run the ball despite the fact that Indianapolis came into this game with one of the worst defenses in the NFL, including a horrible run defense. Starting running back David Montgomery only had 33 rushing yards and the team averaged 3.3 yards per carry.
Again, like last week, the Texans' defense showed up. Will Anderson
had himself a day with 2.5 sacks, including two strip sacks and three tackles for loss and five solo tackles. Pro Bowl linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair fought through injuries to stay in the game and be Houston’s leading tackler.
Here are the studs and duds from Houston’s third loss of the season, including Anderson, who had a career day and Montgomery, who did not do much in this game again.
Stud: DE Will Anderson Jr.
There is no other player who had as good of a day as All-Pro defensive end Will Anderson who had 2.5 sacks, including two strip sacks. The second strip sack was late in the fourth, which led to Houston’s touchdown that temporarily gave them the lead with under two minutes to go.
They may have gone on to blow the lead, but Anderson’s performance in this game was on another level.
Dud: RB David Montgomery
This was the second week in a row Montgomery had a poor game. It was understandable last week against the Bengals, who have one of the better run defenses in the NFL. However, going against the Colts, who were letting teams run all over them in the first two games, this performance is inexcusable. Montgomery was supposed to be the solution to Houston’s problems in the run game last year, but Woody Marks is the one who ended up getting the rushing touchdown because of how poorly Montgomery performed.
Stud: LB Azeez Al-Shaair
It was clear watching this game that Al-Shaair was in pain. However, he managed to finish this game as the leading tackler for Houston with 11 total tackles, even though he only had two solo tackles. This was a gutsy game by Al-Shaair and the entire Houston defense. If they had a better offense, they would probably be 2-1 in this matchup.
Dud: TE Dalton Schultz
After having 14 targets last week against Cincinnati, he was only targeted three times. He caught all of those targets and finished the game with 30 receiving yards. Fellow tight end Foster Moreau ended up scoring the only receiving touchdown of the game.
It was probably part of the Colts’ game plan to take Schultz out of the game and see who would step up, but the Texans could have used Schultz in this game, especially given the inefficiencies in the run game.
Stud: QB C.J. Stroud
His numbers were not the greatest in this game, but he is trying everything possible to make this offense work. It did not help that the run game could not get going again and this game really highlighted how much Houston’s passing game needs Nico Collins. But, Stroud did not make any costly mistakes. He tried getting the ball to his other wide receivers. Stroud is not the problem in this offense in the past two games.
Dud: WR Kayshon Boutte
Boutte is still not doing much in this offense and the Texans could have really used him. The chemistry does not seem to be there between Stroud and Boutte yet, although Boutte did catch both of his targets in this game for 21 yards. Houston needs to get him more involved in the offense, especially with Collins not playing. Perhaps he will see more action against the Dallas Cowboys.
Stud: P Kai Kroeger
After his disaster on a mishandled field goal last week, Kroeger rebounded nicely with a perfect hold on kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn’s lone field goal and both extra points. He also averaged 52.2 yards per punt with his longest punt being 67 yards, which was actually the longest punt in his young career.
For someone who is so important to the special teams, it was good to see him make a comeback this week.
Dud: WR Jared Wayne
Stroud was trying to target Wayne, but he only had one catch the entire game. Houston needs their other receivers to step up as long as Nico Collins is out and that did not happen in this game. At least Wayne’s lone reception went for 20 yards.
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Studs and duds from Houston’s 19-17 loss to the Colts
