Battle Red Blog
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 9:
Goal line/Short Yardage offense…Ouuuccchhhh. Perhaps the most painful part of this game comes from the first half, when the Texans, holding all the momentum, could not score a TD in two drives that had them inside the Denver 2-yard line. The first time saw three straight running plays (one RB dive to Chubb and two FB dives to Brooks(???)). A fourth running play, a QB sneak, appeared the call on 4th and Goal from the 1, but then a false start pushed Houston back to the Denver 5-yard line, setting up a chip shot FG. The second time Houston got to the Denver 2-yard line, they tried a Mills sneak for no gain (I guess the giraffe neck didn’t extend far enough), and a short pass to Collins for 1-yard gain, only to see that negated by a holding call. The Texans would not get any closer to an actual TD. In the Tampa game, Houston maybe threw too much, but here, a play-action/roll out might have worked once. Stroud is mobile enough. Maybe if no holding call and Stroud gets the sneak, different story. The second drive, again, the creativity is sorely lacking. Penalties again killed options, but 5 plays inside the 2 and…nothing. At this point in the season, this is no longer inexperience. This is incompetence.
The Bane of the Texans’ D: The QB Scramble: If this season turns into a lost year for what is shaping up to be perhaps the best defense in Texans’ history, two plays will stand out. Both involved QB scrambles on walk-off drives for the opposing teams. One was the Baker Mayfield 15-yard scramble on Monday Night, benefited by a bad LB blitz angle. The other will be the Bo Nix 25-yard scramble that put Denver in FG range. To that point in the game, the defense was holding on, especially since the offense failed to do anything. However, as Houston went into zone coverage, they only rushed four. However, with no effective QB spy, Nix easily slipped past the base DL rush and ran to the left of the field, with a ton of space. By the time he stopped running, Denver flipped the field, and a tired defense effectively broke. Arguably, the LB unit is the weakest part of the D, but collectively, they’ve been solid. However, this was another 4th quarter fail by this unit, especially when it was sorely needed.
The Critical Play of the Game:
1 & 10, HOU 48, 11:10, 4th quarter
Having completed only the second 1st down of the half (and ultimately, the last Texans’ 1st down), Houston found itself is solid field position. Denver had tied the game on the previous drive, so Houston was under pressure to respond. On 1st and...
