Turnovers, injuries spell trouble for Texans
Marc Vandermeer
Voice of the Houston Texans
I suppose you could just go through the blogs following the Texans' losses to Atlanta, Jacksonville and Cleveland to sum up how we should feel about the latest loss to the Titans.
Despite being decimated by injuries, the Texans are more competitive than last season but still on the wrong side of .500. They were toe-to-toe with the Browns and the Titans the last two weeks but came up short because of crucial mistakes down the stretch. On one hand, you should feel good that they are this close despite the medical report. On the other hand, they have yet to turn the corner on the way to becoming a winning team.
Mario Williams is doing his job. No matter how you feel about who should have been picked in last year's draft, you have to admit that it's looking like Williams could be a special player. He has the team single-season record in sacks now with 8.5. Plus, it's not like anyone else in the Texans' front seven is lighting it up sack-wise. The Texans do very little blitzing (they had a sack on a DB blitz by Von Hutchins) and the QB takedowns have been hard to come by with just the front four. The secondary has been banged up, so it's easy to understand why they would not want go man-to-man so much.
The team is coming off a four out of five road game stretch. If they had taken care of business better, they would have been set up nicely for a three out of four home game finish. As it is, they still have a chance to finish with their best-ever record, but it will take a lot of work and fewer errors.
We often talk about the Texans' struggles with the Colts, but now that the Texans are 2-10 against Tennessee, you can add them to the list of opponents that seem to have Houston's number. A combined 3-20 record against two divisional opponents is a big pill to swallow.
I don't know if Jacoby Jones and Amobi Okoye are hitting rookie walls, but their production has tailed off. Amobi hasn't been a stat-sheet stuffer, but it's often difficult to measure a DT's production through numbers. Jones hasn't been the same since hurting his shoulder Week 3 against the Colts. He's a talent and will perhaps shine in the future, but his determination to make a big play went too far yesterday as he should have either fair caught the muffed punt in the fourth quarter or let it go untouched.
Stat Sheet: The Texans are ninth in the NFL in total offense and 8th in yards per play. This is the first time in team history they've been this productive. The big problem continues to be the turnovers. They put the defense in bad field position and kill time of possession. The defense continues to slide as they are now ranked 21st in the league. Again, we'd love to see how this defense would be ranked if the turnovers weren't such an issue.
CLICKHERETO SEND AN E-MAIL TO VANDERMEER