Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers are coming off their most impressive win of the 2025 season with a 20-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons to move to 5-2.
While the 49ers enter Week 8 three games over .500, don’t let the 2-4 record of the Houston Texans fool you into thinking Sunday in Houston could be a cake walk. 49ers’ fans will be familiar with Texans’ head coach DeMeco Ryans, and the one thing Ryans will promise is a tough defense.
Just how tough is that Texans defense? Let’s dive into this week’s numbers to know:
22.4
The Texans have allowed a score on 22.4 percent of drives, the best rate in the league.
And it’s not particularly close either. The next-best scoring percentage allowed by a defense is the Minnesota Vikings, sitting at 30.9 percent. The 8.5 percent difference between the league-leading Texans and the Vikings is just about the same as that between Minnesota and the 14th-ranked Colts defense, who allow a score on 39.1 percent of drives.
It should come as no surprise that Houston also has the best defense in the league in points allowed, averaging 14.7 points per game. The 49ers offense has posted below-average scoring, averaging 20.7 points per game, good for 23rd in the league – tied with the Carolina Panthers. In Houston’s six games this season, they’ve allowed 20 or fewer points in five games, with the only game where they’ve allowed more than that being last week, when Seattle scored 27.
The 49ers have faced two other defenses in the top five in the league in scoring percentage allowed – the third-ranked Rams and the fourth-ranked Seahawks – with varying results. When the 49ers faced Seattle back in Week 1, they managed a below-average 17 points – it was enough to win – while matching a season-high with 26 points against the Rams, although it took an overtime period for San Francisco to get to that total.
San Francisco has had its fair share of struggles putting points on the board, but things will be that much tougher on Sunday against a stout Houston defense.
32.0
Houston has allowed a first down on 32.0 percent of third-down attempts, the fourth-best percentage in the NFL.
Sunday could be decided on just how well the 49ers do on third downs. Third down is something the 49ers offense has become familiar with, converting 47.5 percent of the time, second only to the Packers. But San Francisco is somewhat comfortable on third downs, running the second-most third-down attempts with 101 (the Packers have run only 76).
Not only do the 49ers run plenty of third downs and convert at a high rate, but they also keep their third downs manageable with an average of 5.92 yards to go on those third downs.
Houston, on the other side, doesn’t face a ton of third downs – the 75 they’ve faced is the seventh-fewest faced in the league – but they’ve done a good job making sure those...
