Battle Red Blog
A classic Houston loss. Blowing a big lead in dramatically creative fashion. Let’s review, ‘cause we love pain
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 10:
The changes to the offensive line worked...until they didn’t: Suffice it to say that the Texans’ offensive line hasn’t had the desired results this season. The primary culprit: LG Kenyon Green. With him out, the Texans went with a solution whereby Juice Scruggs moved from center to left guard and Jarrett Patterson, back from concussion, played center. At first, it seemed to work. Yes, the Texans couldn’t move the Detroit interior, but since it is manned by run-stuffers like DJ Reader, that wasn’t shocking. Yet, in the 1st half, CJ Stroud actually had time to step into the pocket. With that time, he moved the offense about as well as he has all season.
Then came the second half. The sack totals went up from zero to four. Stroud did not have the time he got in the first half. Also, with no Kenyon Green to deflect attention, Shaq Mason and Juice Scruggs showed their limitations. In the end, the pass protection didn’t hold up as required.
Texans’ Pass Defense at NRG: A key headline for this game centered on the Lions overcoming FIVE interceptions from Jared Goff to win the contest, and he could have thrown more. His line: 15-30 for 240 yards, two TDs and those pesky FIVE INTs. The last two opposing QBs to play at NRG only completed a combined 36% of their passes (Josh Allen, Anthony Richardson). All of that with the Texans only getting five QB hits and no sacks. Yet, the relentlessness of the pass rush, even sans Anderson, along with generally strong play in the secondary did much to make Goff, who’d completed 84% of his passes in his past 3 games, look like the QB that the LA Rams couldn’t wait to discard. Houston faltered in the 4th quarter, but had the second half offense mustered some points, we’d be talking more about that pass defense.
Best punting of the season: The Houston punting game had it issues in the 1st half of the season. However, Sunday night saw perhaps the best overall performance of the season from the punting unit. Townsend averaged 55 net yards/punt, to include a beautiful hang-it-in-the-Met 62-yard bomb, that, coupled with the Texans’ punt coverage, flipped the field and set up Houston’s last TD of the 1st half. He even offered some decent field position in the second half when Houston punted from their 1-yard line in the 3rd quarter. Sims averaged 14.3 yards/return and nearly broke two of those for TDs.
The first big “What If?” play of the year: On the third drive in the 3rd quarter, after Detroit cut the lead to 23-13, Houston found...
