Texans vs. Panthers: Houston Grades, Notes & Quotes
New quarterback, but the same results.
The Houston Texans replaced Week 1 starter Brian Hoyer with the taller, stronger quarterback in hopes of providing a spark for their struggling offense, but the end result was similar.
Losing a road game to the Carolina Panthers wasn't surprising, but how they lost this game does raise some concern.
The Texans weren't dominated by a team with a far superior roster, but rather beaten by a team who made fewer mistakes and were much more sound with their fundamentals.
You could argue that those fundamentals can be fixed by the coaching staff over the course of the season, but they shouldn't have to fix simple things like setting the edge at this point and at 0-2 they don't have much time to wait.
Coach Bill O'Brien has a lot of work to do to right the ship and prevent this season from spiraling out of control.
The offensive line was awful, the quarterback was inaccurate, the receivers dropped passes, no one on defense set the edge against the run, the tackling was sloppy and the coverage from the corners was at times far too soft.
Too bad the Hard Knocks cameras aren't around anymore to catch Bill O'Brien exploding after the game; think he let go a few curse words?
Position Grades for the Texans
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| Quarterback | C- |
| Running Back | C- |
| Wide Receiver | C- |
| Tight End | D |
| Offensive Line | D |
| Defensive Line | C |
| Linebackers | D |
| Defensive Backs | D |
| Special Teams | B |
| Coaching | C |
| Overall | D |
Ryan Mallett's stat line today wasn't pretty, but the blame for that shouldn't only be put on his shoulders.
Predictably the play of the offensive line was pretty poor with the multiple injuries to their starters up front. In particular the recently acquired Chris Clark—who started in place of the injured Duane Brown—got beat like a drum.
Many of Mallett's poor throws were caused by offensive linemen getting pushed back into his lap, which didn't allow him to step into his pass.
Mallett made some poor throws both low and high on his own, but no quarterback will deliver passes accurately if they can't step into their throw.
One of those poor throws from Mallett came on the interception he threw to Panthers linebacker A.J. Klein, their replacement for the injured Luke Keuchly. The protection on that play held up, but Mallett somehow didn't see the linebacker playing underneath the route of Graham.
With the poor play of the offensive line and the defense seemingly not worried about getting beat down the field at all, the running game also struggled not surprisingly.
For the game, the Texans averaged just 2.7 yards per carry.
Alfred Blue in particular just provides nothing; Jonathan Grimes and Chris Polk should get all the snaps until Foster returns.
Other than the play of the offensive line, few things hurt quarterback production more than dropped passes from the receivers, and the Texans' group had plenty of them. Every drop is bad, but several of the Texans' drops came on plays that would have picked up first downs and extended drives.
The Texans offense doesn't have the talent to overcome many mistakes, so the drops from Nate Washington, Keith Mumphery and Garrett Graham were huge.
The linebackers had some problems setting the edge against the run and let Mike Tolbert and Jonathan Stewart get to the outside too often. If Tolbert and Stewart pick up tough yards inside that's one thing, but as big backs neither one should have the speed to get the edge if the linebackers do their job.
In the secondary on the Panthers' first touchdown, A.J. Bouye made an awful mistake. The Texans were using a single-high safety with no help over the top for the corners. With that coverage called, Bouye can't bite on a double move under any circumstance.
"A.J. Bouye cont. 'I wish I could have stayed on top of him. I was just trying to make a play. I'll learn from it.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) September 20, 2015"
Without safety help, Bouye can't let the receiver get behind him. He has to keep everything in front and rally for the tackle. That might result in some easy completions being made underneath, but at least he won't get beat for a score.
I didn't mind the choice of zone coverage as I mentioned in the preview articles, but when the Texans did play man on the Panthers receivers, the coverage was too soft.
Cam Newton has never proved capable of fitting passes into tight windows and has a tendency to hold the ball for too long. If you decide to play man, get up on the receivers to take away the easy completions and force Newton to hold the ball so that the pass rush has more time to get home.
Despite being a veteran now, Newton still makes young quarterback mistakes like staring down his target and doesn't throw with anticipation well. You can't give him easy completions.
The poor play of Johnathan Joseph also carried over from last week The reaction time and speed of his breaks on the ball once passes were thrown in front of him was noticeably slower.
On special teams, Mr. Reliable Shane Lechler had another great game with an average of 48.5 yards per punt and three of his eight punts downed inside the 20-yard line. Unfortunately, punting it eight times obviously means the offense didn't play well.
Texans Suffer More Injuries Along the Offensive Line
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The Texans entered their Week 2 game against Carolina already down two starting offensive lineman and might have lost one of their reserves for considerable time.
Second-year lineman Jeff Adams suffered a knee injury during the second quarter of the game and had to be taken off the field on a cart. In his place, the Texans inserted undrafted free agent Kendall Lamm.
"Jeff Adams is down and rolling on ground, calling for trainers. Initially doesn't look good. #Texans
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) September 20, 2015"
With Lamm on the field, the Texans only had two lineman—Ben Jones at center and Brandon Brooks at right guard—playing at the same spot they did just one week ago against Kansas City.
Even without starting defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, the Panthers have a lot of talent up front, so getting push against them with a patchwork offensive line was a difficult task.
The only silver lining with all these offensive line injuries is that Arian Foster appears to be close to a return.
With Foster's exceptional vision for the cutback lanes, he can make a bad offensive line look better by being able to cut his runs away from where the play is intended to go if the blocking isn't there.
His primary replacement, Alfred Blue, does not possess that same vision for the cutback lanes and too often runs the ball right up the back of his blocker and into a short gain or loss of yards.
J.J. Watt Reaches 60 Career Sacks
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Compared only to the impossibly high bar that he's set for himself, I guess you could say that J.J. Watt didn't have a great game.
Not that Watt played poorly by any means, but he didn't provide an "Oh my God" moment like fans of the Texans have become accustomed to seeing from him.
For the game, Watt finished with one sack, one tackle for loss, two passes defensed and two hits on the quarterback—a great game for any normal player.
Watt did, however, set a bit of history with his only sack of the game.
"JJ Watt records a sack for the 7th straight game, becoming the 2nd-fastest player to 60 career sacks. (Reggie White) pic.twitter.com/7kWVYbuhAx
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) September 20, 2015"
For a player who has won the Defensive Player of the Year award two times out of the last three years and is the only player ever to record two seasons of over 20 sacks, it should come as no surprise to hear his name listed among the all-time greats of the game.
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Texans Offense Plagued by Slow Starts
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The Houston Texans have scored just 12 first-half points over their first two games of the season. Coach O'Brien knows that has to improve.
"O'Brien said #Texans' offense can't keep starting slow. Had another mess up on first play, which is on coaching and players.
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) September 20, 2015"
Their offense isn't strong enough to overcome many deficits at this point, so slow starts are game-killers.
With an inexperienced quarterback behind an injured offensive line and without Arian Foster available, the Texans just don't have the firepower to execute efficiently when the opponent knows they have to pass.
Regardless of who the quarterback is under center, the Texans can't afford to pass the ball 58 times like they did against Carolina.
"#Texans averaged 37.4 passes a game in 2014. the two games 2015? 52.5.
— PDS (@PatDStat) September 20, 2015"
Not being able to run the ball effectively and constantly falling behind the chains to put themselves in 3rd-and-long situations obviously contributed to the lack of balance on offense.
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