Battle Red Blog
The Houston Texans made up for their less-than-stellar performance against Minnesota last week by nearly shutting out the Carolina Panthers today at NRG Stadium.
The first team defense already looked like they were in midseason form by starting the game with a Derek Stingley interception of Bryce Young that would eventually be called back due to a holding penalty on Will Anderson.
The offense took a little longer to show up, but show up they did, with a lovely 60-yard drive capped off with a Nico Collins touchdown.
The Panthers would eventually answer back with their lone score of the game, a 52-yard field goal late in the second quarter; this would be negated by the Texans’ next drive which ended with a 41-yard score by Ka’imi Fairbairn.
The Texans got the ball back to start the second half and added to their score with another Fairbairn field goal, this time a more modest 35-yarder.
The score would remain unchanged until early in the fourth when backup RB British Brooks punched the ball into the end zone for the Texans’ second and final touchdown of the game, putting them up 20-3.
The Panthers would try one more time to put some more points on the board but missed wide left on a field goal.
But the score isn’t the important thing. Who was impressive in this week’s glorified scrimmage? Here’s just a few players that caught my attention today:
CB Jaylin Smith – Smith made his presence known today by registering a pick and a pass deflection and three tackles on the day. A lot of people were scratching their heads when he was drafted back in April, including a lot of us on the masthead, but the kid has shown he has some potential for the Texans.
QB Kedon Slovis – I have to admit, I didn’t think much of Slovis or his counterpart Graham Mertz after the Vikings game. But Slovis showed me something today. He has good agility and a skill for buying time and making plays; I don’t ever want to see him on the field during the regular season this year, but, again, he’s showing flashes of potential that I didn’t think he had before.
RB Woody Marks – Marks got significant playing time through much of the second and third quarters and he made the most of his time on the field today. He gashed the Panthers defense with seven runs for 40 yards on the day. Not a bad day of work, even if it is against backups.
The Offensive Line – I was surprised to see how clean a pocket Stroud, Mills, and, to a lesser extent, Slovis had on the day. The quarterbacks were only sacked once in the entire game, and that was a one yard sack of Stroud. Considering the question marks that have surrounded this unit since the end of last season, that they kept the QBs this clean is something of a wonder to behold.
So what...
