Houston Texans kicked off their home opener against the division rivals, Indianapolis Colts. With a strong game last week against the Baltimore Ravens, one would assume this game’s outcome would most likely result in a Texans game. Sadly, Texans fans witness something they should be familiar with, losing. Indianapolis Colts left Houston with the dub, with a score of 31-20. Looking ahead to next week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, here are some positive and negative takes away from today’s game.
Negative: First, I’ll start with the disappointments of today’s game. The first negative takeaway is the offensive line. Potential All-Pro offensive tackle, Laremy Tunsil was scratched from the starting lineup up did no justice to protecting CJ Stroud, or helping an already depleted line. Josh Jones was the replacement for Tunsil, who allowed 3 out of 6 sacks and to add to injury, caused 2 out of 3 penalties. Jones also caused a penalty resulting in a touchdown being called back. Josh Jones wasn’t the only problem with the offensive line. I was hoping with more reps, the depleted line would look better today. Poor CJ Stroud was out running for his life, despite having a great game. The Texans might be in trouble until week 4 when several starters return from injuries. Now flipping to the defensive side of the ball, it doesn’t look much better, but there is some hope coming from this game. Jalen Pitre left in the second quarter of last week’s game with a chest injury, leaving the Texans starting their 3rd and 4th string safeties to start. The game plan worked to an extent until the backup safety Eric Murray left the game with an injury. This made Demeco Ryans change his game plan from playing mostly man and blitz defense to mostly zone defense. After scoring his second rushing touchdown, Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson left the game due to a concussion.
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One would expect that to help the Texans retake the lead and change the game, but due to the lack of safeties, Gardner Minshew came in carving the Texan’s defense with short accurate passes. Hopefully, Pitre and Ward come back healthy against the Jaguars weapon heavy team.
Positive: This is going to be short and sweet. Not much to be positive but there is a couple of things. One, a healthy Nico Collins is a game-changer and safety blanket for a young rookie quarterback. The explosiveness of Collins helped the young rookie receiver Tank Dell get open and find his first career touchdown. A big question mark in the offseason was the like of receiver weapons for CJ Stroud, after two weeks I believe those doubts should be erased. Dell, Collins, and Woods have been great assets for the quarterback. Secondly, CJ STROUD!!!!!!!! As I stated before Stroud was running for his life today. Despite that, Stroud threw for 30/47 384 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions and finished the game with a 63.8 completion percentage. Stroud is proving his accuracy is the real deal and not just because of the teams he played in college. besides all that, CJ’s poise shows a lot with being hurried 11 times, hit 8 times, and sacked 6 times did not rattle CJ in the pocket. Hopefully, by week 4, Stroud will get several starters back to the offensive line, helping him learn the game a little faster. As of now, Stroud was the right pick at second overall.
Houston Texans have a week to game plan against another division rival, Jacksonville Jaguars. Fans are in hope the teams continue to take a step forward to the right direction. If you would like to hear more about today’s game recap make sure to tune into the Texans Fan Battle Podcast. You can watch and subscribe here!
