Battle Red Blog
What was the good, bad, and ugly from the Texans 26-23 loss?
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Sunday night’s game between the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions was a dichotomy in every sense of the word. On the one hand, the Texans had no business losing that game. On the other hand, they had no business being in that game either.
Watching the second half was like a watching a car crash in slow motion. You could see it from the first play of the half. The Texans were going to find a way to lose that game that they had worked so hard to put in their favor. As beautiful as the first half was defensively and as much as the defense fought hard against the best offense in the NFL, the offense just couldn’t make enough plays to win the game. That is as simple as we can put it.
Total Yards: Texans 248, Lions 345
Rushing Yards: Texans 28/56, Lions 32/105
Passing Yards: Texans 37/192, Lions 30/240
Turnovers: Texans 2, Lions 5
Penalties: Texans 4/30, Lions 4/61
Sacks: Texans 0, Lions 4
Time of Possession: Texans 32:28, Lions 27:32
There hasn’t been a team in my lifetime that has picked off a team five times and lost the game. It happened last night. Moreover, this is two games this year where the Texans have found a way to be +3 in turnover margin and lose. I could look up the odds of that happening, but I would probably find it too depressing. The odds of it happening twice have to be astronomical.
The sad thing is that we knew it would take that sort of game to give the Texans a chance. The Lions were the better team AND the Texans were missing key players. It was going to take some breaks and you got them. I don’t think anyone can expect a team to turn the ball over THAT often. Trey Lance could captain the Cowboys next Monday and I don’t think there is any way to expect him to throw that many picks.
At the same time, this team was dominated physically and particularly so on the offensive end. Two yards a carry is ridiculously stupid. However, I will get into more of that later when we get into the good, bad, and ugly.
As a defensive coach, DeMeco Ryans has few peers in the league. The team was without their best pass rusher and still managed to slow down the best offense going in the NFL. It is far past time to recognize that the Texans just make opposing quarterbacks miserable. I don’t know how they do it. Their pass rush is not the best in the NFL. Their secondary is not the best in the NFL. When you take each individual unit and evaluate it, there are better units out there in the NFL.
When you put them all...
