The Day After the Day After: Aftermath of the Houston Texans’ loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs

The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Week 2:

The script for the “Most Interesting Defense in the World” flips: In the 2+ years under the most interesting defensive coordinator in the world Matt Burke, the Texans’ defense found itself needing to hold off the opponent in the final seconds. In 2023, the defense held off the Saints, Cardinals, Broncos, Colts when those teams needed touchdowns to tie or win. Last season, it held off final charges from the Colts and Dolphins to secure such victories. Historically, Houston would surrender enough yards for the FG (see ATL and CAR in 2023, GB and DET in 2024). However, the 2025 defense failed to keep the Bucs out of the endzone. Was the defense likely tired from being on the field for almost 37 minutes prior to that final drive? Sure. One could argue after so many successful holds to prevent a team from score a game winning/tying TD, the team was due for some regression. Still, if Houston wants to get where it wants to go, the defense has to lead the way, and it must close out games like this.

The Two 4th Downs that decided the game: In a game like this, it can come down to but a couple of plays. Here, two 4th down plays decided the fate of the contest. One was a fourth down conversion not made, the other one was.

• HOU: 4th and Goal from the Tampa Bay 1 (4th Qtr, 11:19). Houston comes out in shotgun. This is the 3rd consecutive play starting from the TB 1 yard line. A Nick Chubb run for no gain and a Stroud incompletion to Collins got Houston to his point. Given that Houston trailed early in the 4th by 4 and was at the TB 1, few could argue against the call to go for it here. Stroud takes the snap and rolls to his left, along with most of his eligible receivers. He targets Collins, but throws high and to the right of Collins, who is under good coverage.
• TB: 4th and 10 from the TB 32 (4th Qtr, 1:24). While the Bucs still had its full complement of timeouts, this play likely meant ball game. Mayfield took the shotgun snap, desperate to find some open receiver to keep the drive alive. Houston’s front four got some good push all along the O-line. LB To’oTo’o then came on a delayed blitz along the right side of the Bucs’ line. However, he did not take the greatest angle and Mayfield was able to side-step his rush enough to only get a weak-arm outreach from the LB. From there, Mayfield saw the middle of the field wide open, as any Texans defender not rushing was in deeper coverage. He gets 15 yards before S...