Battle Red Blog
We are several days removed from the Houston Texans disappointing victory over the woeful Las Vegas Raiders. They hit the 10-win mark but limp into an important matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers. After the Raiders game, I asked the other writers of Battle Red Blog to express their frustrations with the team. And vent they did.
Provide your immediate reaction to the Texans nail biting win against the really bad Raiders. The offense looked bad and the defense started to show crack due to injuries up front. What frustrated you the most against the Raiders and who do you point the finger at?
What frustrated me most?
Nick Caley.
Who do we point the finger at?
Nick Caley.
The offense looked borderline inept time and again today. Max Crosby coming untouched into the backfield multiple times. No receivers open multiple times. This was likey the worst defense the Texans will face before next season and Caley only managed to put up 1 touchdown? The next time Houston loses, if Caley isn’t promoted to unemployed within an hour of the end of the game, Cal should fire himself for gross negligence. Defensively it made me wonder just how much Al-Shair means to this unit. His on-field “quarterbacking” of the defense was clearly missed today. Hopefully he gets healthy and the team shakes off this clunker of a game fast.
I was most frustrated by how the Raiders’ defense was able to completely neutralize the Texans’ offensive game plan. Credit to Maxx Crosby and the defensive line for smothering the run and annihilating Houston’s offensive line, but there didn’t seem to be much urgency by Caley/Stroud to complete the easier passes to keep the offense on the field more. Too many tosses for negative yards, and 4+ 3-and-outs against a 2-12 Raiders team is unacceptable.
The run defense was exposed today. Henry To’oTo’o was caught again in coverage on a long touchdown reception to a running back. All in all, this was a notch below “a win is a win”. This felt like a disastrous regression for the offense, one that completely resets your expectations for what they can accomplish this season.
Going to throw my own thoughts in here early too. What’s most frustrating is the playing to the level of competition. We should have put them away much like we did the Cardinals where it was close-ish, but the offense couldn’t get going. I thought Caley tried multiple different things ONCE and then completely abandoned them for the simple playbook he maintains.
Stroud’s footwork looked like it was back to its old inconsistencies. He’s had issues all season when under pressure. He throws jump passes, passes without a good base, and inconsistent drop backs. I also thought he could have run the ball several times and chose not to.
This was a...
