The Houston Texans’ first preseason game of the 2022 season, the first game of any sort with Lovie Smith as the new head coach, was a perfect microcosm of the preseason as a whole, thus far. The quality of play was a melange of sloppiness, youthful mistakes, but with just enough good stuff sprinkled in to keep the good vibes moving in a positive direction.
In the end, it was third string quarterback Jeff Driskel engineering a late comeback drive, capped off by a short touchdown pass to Johnny Johnson III, to steal a win from the New Orleans Saints, 17-13. Look, if Jeff Driskel and Johnny Johnson III are anywhere close to the field late in games in the regular season, it’s probably a disastrous campaign happening for the Texans. However, for one night, it was fun to see Texan uniforms beat Saints uniforms.
The results for individuals players and position groups are far more important than the final score of a preseason game, so let’s hit some winners and losers from Saturday night, shall we?
WINNERS
4. Third string wide receivers
I actually went into this game feeling sorry for any receivers trying to make this roster, because with second string QB Kyle Allen down with COVID, that meant the wildly inaccurate (but hyper athletic) Jeff Driskel was going to skipper at least three quarters of this game. If you’re a Texan trying to show off your receiving skills, that’s not ideal. However, credit Driskel, who made a few throws at the end of the game that allowed Johnson to redeem himself from a bad third down drop in the second half, and allowed Jalen Camp to flash some speed and playmaking ability on a deep ball setting up the winning touchdown. Camp also had a nifty one-handed catch in the first half for a touchdown. Camp has been flashing frequently in practice, and is making a push to stick on the 53-man roster.
3. Pass rush
We know that Lovie Smith’s “Tampa 2” defense is predicated on the defensive line’s ability to win one-on- one matchups and generate a pass rush without blitzing. The Texans had difficulty doing this in 2021. Last night, they put serious heat on Saints quarterback Ian Book throughout the second half. Obo Okoronkwo was living in the New Orleans backfield, Derek Rivers had two sacks where it looked like he was shot out of a cannon, and undrafted rookie defensive tackle Kurt Hinish even got in on the act with a big sack. We didn’t get to see veterans Jon Greenard, Jerry Hughes, or Mario Addison last night. All were given the night off, but this part of the Texans’ makeup could be sneaky underrated come regular season.
2. Jalen Pitre
Of all the rookies in camp, Pitre has made the biggest impression, thus far, with not only his skill and level of play, but with his leadership and football IQ. You never know if that will translate onto the field from practice to an actual game. For Pitre on Saturday, it absolutely did. Playing a handful of series in the first half, Pitre had four tackles, including a tackle for loss where he darted into the backfield to take down a Saints ball carrier. Pitre’s nose for the football and ability to make game changing plays is what earned him the Big XII Defensive Player of the Year at Baylor in 2021. It looks, thus far, like he is on a similar track at the pro level.
1. Dameon Pierce
If Pitre is the rookie who has flashed on the defense, then Pierce is Pitre’s alter ego on the offensive side. The running back position has been a major issue for the Texans for years. If we’re being honest, the Texans’ issues at running back probably go all the way back to Arian Foster tearing his Achilles in 2015. Pierce looks like he has the skillset and the mindset to be the best Texans back since Foster. On Saturday, he had five carries for 49 yards, and ALL of them showed off a little something in his game — the ability to cut back against the grain, the superior vision, the physical explosiveness in finishing off runs. Pierce was the star of the show.
LOSERS
4. Penalties
We cannot ignore in victory what we would address in defeat — that’s an old saying that I heard, for the first time, from former Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy, many years ago. It applies heavily in the takeaways from Saturday’s game, because there is a LOT for the Texans to improve upon. The penalties are, by far, the biggest area to address. The Texans tallied 11 penalties for a whopping total of 99 yards. Many of them were of the 15-yard variety (late hits, face masks), and early on in the game, bad penalties on offense put that unit behind the chains. Put it this way — this might be the only game we see for another decade where the Texans commit three turnovers and commit nearly 100 yards worth of penalties and WIN the game.
3. Front line units
The other aspect of this game we cannot ignore is that the Texans did all of their damage, on both sides of the ball, after the first units for each team hit the showers. The Saints’ first team offense, led by backup QB Andy Dalton, sliced right through the Texans’ defense for a 7-0 lead. Meanwhile, Davis Mills led the first string offense to two drives that both went three-and-out. Granted, this is a minimal sample size, and the Texans were resting guys like Laremy Tunsil and Brandin Cooks, but still, a first down on offense would have been nice to see.
2. Zach Wilson, Nick Harris, and the walking wounded
If there is one HUGE positive to come out of Saturday night’s game, it’s that the team came out of it healthy. While there are a handful of Texans dealing with various maladies, there were no new injuries. It causes you to breathe a sigh of relief when you see teams like the Jets, who lost their starting quarterback Zach Wilson for a month with a torn meniscus in his knee, or the Browns who lost starting center Nick Harris for the SEASON (knee injury) on the second play of their game Friday. The Harris injury does make you wonder….
1. Deshaun Watson, forced apologizer
….if maybe there is a hex on the Cleveland Browns. Signing Deshaun Watson to the biggest deal in football history is a good way to stoke the rage of the football gods. In the last two weeks, the Browns have seen RB Kareem Hunt request a trade, kick returner Jakeem Grant tear his Achilles, and now Harris injure a knee. The Watson Curse is real, and I am guessing this forced, insincere sham of an apology won’t help:
Amazing how remorseful Deshaun Watson gets when a judge tells him his lack of remorse is a big reason he is being punished, and about to get his punishment increased to a full season. We could learn the results of the NFL’s appeal of Watson’s six-game suspension this week. Throw the book at him, please!
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
