In their 1-3-1 start to the season, the trend for the Houston Texans had been that they were hanging around within a score in each of those games, but eventually they couldn’t seal the deal, except against Jacksonville. The recurring theme in every Lovie Smith press conference was “we need to finish better.” Well, for the first time this season, finishing late wasn’t really the issue, as the Las Vegas Raiders finished off the Texans throughout the third and early fourth quarter in a 38-20 win at Allegiant Stadium.
Once again, the Texans hung around for a half and change, taking a 10-10 tie into the locker room at halftime, and actually taking a 20-17 lead in the third quarter. Alas, Josh Jacobs ran over, through, and around the Texans defense in three second half Raider touchdown drives, and that was it. The Raiders righted their ship to move to 2-4, and the Texans fell to 1-4-1.
There were winners and losers on Sunday, in that game and a few around the league. Let’s take a look:
WINNERS
4. Dameon Pierce
In a season where it’s abundantly clear that the Texans have many more holes to fill, several of which won’t get filled until after another draft or two, Pierce continues to be a revelation. He was operating in the shadow of Jacobs yesterday, but still came away with a very physical, contact-laden 92 yards on 20 carries. Pierce is the best thing the Texans have going offensively and Lovie Smith made it clear this week that he is not going to be afraid to use him. A LOT.
3. Dare Ogunbowale
One thing that would really help Pierce would be a viable second running back to take some of the load. Someone NOT named Rex Burkhead! Up until yesterday, Lovie Smith had been hesitant to use anybody except Pierce or Burkhead out of the backfield. Well, the drives toward the end of the game, with the score out of reach, gave Ogunbowale a chance to get on the field. He came in and had an impressive 54 yards on five catches, and showed some wiggle that Burkhead has never shown in his life. To wit, Burkhead had five catches for a total of ELEVEN yards! Here’s hoping that Smith didn’t see Ogunbowale’s performance as mere garbage time, and he gives him some snaps against Tennessee this Sunday.
2. Jordan Akins
Akins left the Texans in free agency this past offseason to sign with the New York Giants. When things didn’t work out there, and the Texans had injuries at the tight end position, Nick Caserio brought Akins back to be part of the tight end room. Akins has responded with the best pass catching month of his career. On Sunday, he had three catches for 68 yards, and all three catches mattered. One came on an early third down conversion, another on a 39 yard catch and run, and the last one on a fourth down conversion to keep the Texans’ hopes on life support. I’m very happy for Akins.
1. Houston NFL Draft enthusiasts
Well, it sucks to see your team lose, but it is fun to think about the draft next season. Also, keep in mind that the Texans’ have the Browns’ first round pick from the Deshaun Watson trade, so if the season were to end today, here is the order of the 2023 NFL Draft:
1. DETROIT
2. HOUSTON
3. CAROLINA
4. PHILADELPHIA (from New Orleans)
5. HOUSTON (from Cleveland)
That’s pretty tasty, especially if the Texans opt to find a new quarterback. Speaking of which….
LOSERS
4. Davis Mills
Mills was actually pretty solid throughout most of the afternoon. He was hurt by a missed field goal early on by Ka’imi Fairbairn, as well as a Brandin Cooks drop on 3rd and 2 in the first half. Ultimately, he threw for a respectable 302 yards for the day. However, when the game turned into a back and forth prize fight, Mills couldn’t generate offense on one of the worst pass defenses in the league, and ultimately his pick six that made it 38-20 functionally ended the game. As of right now, this team still needs a long term solution at quarterback.
3. Kyle Shanahan
Let’s mix in a couple bullet points relevant to news around the league. The biggest story this past week was the Niners trading four draft picks to the Panthers for RB Christian McCaffrey. The trade made very little sense given (a) McCaffrey’s sketchy injury history, (b) the price tag for running backs generally being far lower than other positions, (c) the fact that Kyle Shanahan’s offense generally doesn’t need star running backs to make it work, and (d) the Niners traded three first round picks already for their quarterback. So McCaffrey played his first game as a Niners on Sunday. It was ugly, a 44-23 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, dropping the Niners to 3-4 on the season.
2. Tom Brady
But hey, Shanahan, you think you got it bad? It could be worse. You could be Tom Brady, who is going through a divorce in his personal life, and going through a horrifically underachieving season in his professional life. To wit, on Sunday, the Buccaneers lost 21-3 to the Panthers — the team trading its best player for draft picks — and fell to 3-4 on the season.
1. Texans run defense
OK, back to the Texans. Their run defense has been trash all season long. They gave up over 160 yards to Jonathan Taylor. The Broncos ran through them in Week 2. They made Khalil Herbert look like Walter Payton in Week 3. The list goes on and on. For whatever reason, Sunday’s performance against the Raiders felt more helpless than those, because in the second half, when the game was slipping away, Josh Jacobs had 10 carries for 98 yards and three touchdowns. The emasculating thing was the fact that’s longest carry was for 15 yards, so this was not a yardage total buoyed by one long run. This was a steady stream of body blows that went anywhere from 6 yards to 15 yards. Given the fact that the Texans’ front seven is largely made up of journeyman veterans and low level draft picks, this probably won’t improve any time soon.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
