The Houston Texans enter their Week 8 bye sitting at 2-5, and the next stretch of the season will demand a lot more than just small fixes. If they want any chance at a late push, the numbers from the first seven games point to three areas that have to sharpen up fast.
One of the clearest places Houston can build is on the ground. Woody Marks has given the offense a lift over the last three weeks, averaging 3.8 yards per carry while David Montgomery has been sidelined, and he’s been chipping in more than 80 yards from scrimmage during that span. He’s become a real playmaker for the Texans’ offense and has helped drag the run game out of the rough patch it was in earlier this season.
Even so, the blocking in front of him still has room to grow. Houston’s nearly 20% run stuffed rate is a problem, and only six teams rank ahead of the Texans in that category.
More than half of those teams are below .500, which is exactly where Houston sits now. If the Texans want their offense to keep moving in the right direction, they need more clean runs and less wasted first-down work.
The defense, meanwhile, has not generated the takeaway surge it showed during last season’s early run. Through seven games last year, Houston had already forced 11 turnovers. This year, that number is down to six.
The biggest shortfall has come through the air. The Texans have only three interceptions, with backup linebacker Jake Hansen, safety Calen Bullock and Reed Blankenship accounting for them.
Derek Stingley and Kamari Lassiter, the team’s top two corners, still haven’t found a takeaway. For a defense with this much talent on paper, especially in the secondary, three interceptions in seven games is nowhere near enough.
And then there’s the penalty issue, which came into sharp focus in last week’s loss to the New York Giants. Houston was flagged eight times for 80 yards, another reminder that the operation can look disjointed and undisciplined, particularly along the offensive line.
The Texans currently have the third-most flags in the league, behind only the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns, who each have 73. They’re also one of just two teams that have surrendered more than 500 total yards on the season because of penalties. That kind of self-inflicted damage is especially costly when the run game is already struggling on early downs.
Houston has managed to protect the ball on offense. Now the defense and the line play have to clean up their side of the ledger.
DeMeco Ryans knows it. Time will tell whether the Texans can straighten things out in time for a second-half push.
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Texans Suddenly Face A Deadline Decision Fans Can't Ignore
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At 2-5, Houston is staring at a stretch of upcoming games that could shape the rest of its season, and that makes the front offices next move especially tricky. The Texans have not been forced into a full reset, but the combination of their record and the divisions willingness to deal has put their deadline plans under a brighter spotlight than anyone around the team would have expected a few weeks ago. [Read more 🡒]