Battle Red Blog
The 2025 season started with a thud as the Houston Texans lost to the Los Angeles Rams 14-9. It was a lackluster defensive effort as the offense spotted the defense nine whole points and a two point lead going into the second half. The defense wasn’t able to shut out a Hall of Fame quarterback in the second half, so the team loses its first game of the 2025 season. Okay, I can’t keep that farce going. This game was an obvious offensive failure as Nick Caley and company will need to go back to the drawing board before week two.
There were certainly moments in the first half offensively. Stroud utilized more short passes than last year to keep some drives going and he was able to use his legs to extend some other drives. There were a few good Nick Chubb runs and the Fairbairn had three good kicks to put the team up going into halftime. That was the last time they would put points on the board.
This is a reminder that we look at the numbers every week to see which numbers correlate best between winning and losing. We also want to see if there are any patterns we notice overall in the team’s performance. Obviously, we won’t know that after week one, but by the time we get through the first month of the season I am sure we will begin to see some commonalities.
The Texans actually ran the ball fairly well. They averaged more than four yards a carry and that included Chubb and his 60 yards rushing. If he continues at that pace he will have more than 1000 yards rushing. Stroud obviously contributed with some timely runs in the first half that extended drives. The running game actually helped sustain some drives and helped them win the time of possession battle. That is the only major battle that they won.
Everyone will focus on the turnover battle and rightfully so, but the passing game was just not good enough on this day. The Rams limited Nico Collins to three catches and 25 yards and no one else was there to pick up the slack. Certainly, while Joe Mixon and Christian Kirk are out, the Rams gave every NFL team a blueprint on how to beat the Texans. You make someone else beat you and as they have demonstrated numerous times over the last year, there is no one there to do it.
On balance, this was a very good performance by the defense. They are not the 1985 Bears or the 2000 Ravens, but they play a punishing brand of football and I guarantee the Rams will...
