Texans vs. Falcons: Houston Grades, Notes & Quotes
What an embarrassing performance from the Houston Texans during their blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
Did you see a silver lining in that game? Usually there's at least something small to hold on to that a team can build on going forward, but not this week.
It could be argued that football is the truest team sport of the major American sports, with 11 starters on each side of the ball and only one mistake from one player needed to ruin a play. Individual players can play well, but it doesn't mean anything if the other 10 don't hold up their end of the bargain.
That's how the Texans lost this week: a complete team failure.
The pass protection was inconsistent, the quarterback play was awful, receivers ran the wrong routes, the tackling was poor on defense, cornerbacks gave up easy completions and the new kicker's field-goal attempt to end the first half fell pitifully short.
Houston hasn't had a four-game start this bad since 2008 (0-4 that season), so it'll be interesting to see how it responds.
Having a short week with a Thursday game against Indianapolis coming up might be a great thing for this team. With their preparation schedule sped up so much with three fewer days in between games, they won't have time to look back and dwell on this loss to Atlanta.
With the Texans only one game back of the division-leading Colts, a win next week would go a long way toward erasing the memory of this deflating loss.
See what I did there?
Deflating loss and an upcoming game against the Colts, have to laugh to keep from going crazy.
Position Grades for the Texans
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| Quarterback | D |
| Running Back | D |
| Wide Receiver | C |
| Tight End | D |
| Offensive Line | C |
| Defensive Line | C |
| Linebacker | D |
| Defensive Back | D |
| Special Teams | D |
| Coaching | F |
| Overall | F |
Where do I even start with this breakdown?
If you were told before the game that Julio Jones would be held to just 38 yards on only four catches, you'd probably feel pretty good about the Texans' chances of winning the game, right?
Sadly, the Texans were so inept that the Falcons didn't even need to rely on a big game from the best receiver in the league this year.
Instead the Texans got bludgeoned by the Falcons running game and wilted like a team with no passion or desire to fight back.
Falcons running back Devonta Freeman didn't even play the whole game because of the wide margin, but he still ended up with 149 total yards and three touchdowns.
It wasn't just Freeman, though. Even backup Terron Ward came in and had some success with 72 yards and a rushing touchdown.
The front seven as a whole obviously didn't play well, but most of the blame should fall on the shoulders of the inside linebackers, who just got manhandled.
That's not to say that the Texans defensive line played well, but the play from the linebackers was a bigger problem and is more of a reason for concern going forward.
Not surprisingly, J.J. Watt still managed to fill up the box score, but solid play from one guy wasn't nearly enough against Atlanta.
Watt finished with one sack, three tackles for loss and two passes defensed.
Despite holding Jones in check, the secondary gave up way too many easy completions on passes they didn't even bother to contest. Kareem Jackson in particular seemed to get picked on by the Falcons quite a bit before he left the game with an injury.
It's unclear if his poor play was caused by whatever injury he suffered, but he was a non-factor today.
Staying with the secondary, the tackling from the group was a mess. In particular safety Quintin Demps took an awful angle on Freeman's second touchdown run.
Freeman getting up to the third level without being touched obviously wasn't on Demps, but his poor angle gave him no chance to bring the runner down to prevent the touchdown.
To be fair to the defense, two of the Falcons' first three touchdowns were the result of poor plays on offense and are not the fault of the defense.
The Falcons' first touchdown came off a short field after an interception, while their third was a result of a beautiful strip of Arian Foster by Derek Newton, which Desmond Trufant returned for a touchdown.
Speaking of the offense, what a joke they were today. I started hoping about halfway through the game that CBS might start playing the Benny Hill theme over their broadcast whenever the Texans offense took the field.
A few factors like poor blocking and dropped passes worked against Ryan Mallett, but he also played awful on his own and deserved to be pulled for the remaining game by coach Bill O'Brien.
Mallett's footwork was a mess during the game, which in part caused many of his passes to either sail high over the receiver's head or end up so far behind his target that they didn't even have a chance to be caught.
Specifically, there was a fourth-down play in the third quarter where Foster ran an arrow route out of the backfield and was wide open for what should have been a first down.
It was a short pass that Mallett or any other quarterback should be able to complete 100 percent of the time, but the pass was thrown behind Foster and the Texans turned the ball over on downs.
From a very amateur and outsider's point of view, maybe O'Brien's offense is too complicated for the players they're starting.
Not trying to make excuses at all, but the Texans' passing scheme uses option routes frequently where depending on the look of the defense—man, zone, off coverage, press, etc.—the receiver has to react accordingly.
The problem is that the quarterback and receivers seem to be seeing different things, because several times a game passes are falling incomplete or are intercepted like in the Kansas City game, with the intended target not close enough to make a play.
Either the quarterback or the receiver could be to blame for these mistakes, but they're not on the same page way too often.
Going to Foster and the running game, that part of the offense didn't contribute much of anything, but considering the flow of the game, they never had a chance.
The Texans only rushed the ball 17 times mainly due to falling behind so quickly. On their limited number of attempts, the Texans backs rushed for just 3.2 yards per carry.
It could have been a result of the defense playing conservative with a big lead or the change in quarterback—probably a little of both—but the wide receivers did post some pretty good numbers once passes actually started coming close enough for them to catch.
Their final numbers will only matter to people playing them in fantasy football, but DeAndre Hopkins and Cecil Shorts III combined for 15 receptions and 244 yards through the air. Solid stats.
Finally, let's discuss the performance of the coaching staff against Atlanta.
The Falcons are a good team, but O'Brien and his staff clearly didn't have their team ready to play. In what hopefully won't become a trend, the Texans have come out inexcusably flat in both of their road games this year.
Looking past the X's and O's, I gave O'Brien an "F" for today in large part because he needlessly left veteran players in the game well after it had gotten out of hand.
Why was Watt in on offense for a goal-line run in the fourth quarter?
Why in the world would you risk an injury to your best player in that situation? The Texans were down 42-7 at the time, and Watt is in the game for what purpose?
To make matters worse—if that's possible—they didn't even throw him the ball, so him being out there was completely pointless on top of being risky.
Watt shouldn't be out there to catch passes either down that big late in the game, but why would you put him in just to run the ball?
Watt wasn't the only one. I noticed at least Brian Cushing and Jadeveon Clowney were out on the field late in the game as well. Maybe you could argue that Clowney needs the reps, but why keep veterans with an injury history like Cushing out there?
What did the team have to benefit by risking injuries to key players at a point in the game where they had no chance to win? The coaching staff had already seen other veterans like Jackson and Demps come up gimpy, but apparently that wasn't enough reason for caution.
The other reason O'Brien deserves to get a poor grade was for that dumb play call on the 4th-and-goal to end the game.
Ultimately it didn't matter what play they called since they trailed by 21 with one second left at the time, but calling a quick wide receiver screen when they needed 17 yards was just awful.
I don't even care that Shorts fumbled and Atlanta returned it for a touchdown; the play itself was the problem.
They didn't just need 17 yards, they needed 17 yards in a goal-to-go situation where the defense knew what part of the field they had to attack; the play had zero chance of working.
The coaching staff didn't throw the passes behind receivers or miss tackles on Freeman, but they made some very poor decisions during the loss to Atlanta.
Ryan Mallett Pulled in Second Half for Brian Hoyer
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The Texans' seesaw quarterback situation continued this week with Coach O'Brien pulling his starter for the second time in just four games.
Before being pulled, Ryan Mallett completed just 12 of 27 pass attempts for 150 yards, no touchdowns and one interception; his quarterback rating for the game was 46.8.
Brian Hoyer got the benefit of facing a conservative defense trying to keep everything in front since they had a huge lead, but he did throw for 232 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions during his brief playing time.
"DeAndre Hopkins on Brian Hoyer: 'He came in and made some plays. That's the name of the game. He came in and gave us a fighting chance.'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) October 4, 2015"
So where do the Texans go from here?
I wanted Mallett to start going into the season, but perhaps pulling Hoyer after just three quarters was a mistake. Along those same lines, continuing to flip back and forth between quarterbacks whenever they have a bad start would also be a mistake.
A decision needs to be made either way about whom they want to start, and they should go with that decision for more than just a game or two.
I'm not endorsing a starter being named for the rest of the season, but they can't continue to shuffle Hoyer and Mallett in and out every couple of games. That won't help either quarterback develop confidence and could upset the locker room.
O'Brien should pick a quarterback and stick with him until it's obvious that he's not capable of getting the job done; that takes more than one or two games.
I would still prefer Mallett since he's the younger quarterback with more physical tools, but neither guy looks like he should be on the team next year.
Arian Foster Contributes Little in Return
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In his first game of the 2015 season, Texans star running back Arian Foster didn't look like the player fans saw last year.
"Arian Foster 'I didn't play well'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) October 4, 2015"
Foster didn't get much of a chance to shine with the game getting out of hand quickly, but he finished his first game back with only 1.2 yards per carry on eight rushing attempts.
He also caught three passes during the game but could have had a few more receptions had Mallett's accuracy been a little better.
Regardless of what anyone thought Foster could contribute against Atlanta, playing him this week at the risk of not having him for the Indianapolis game next week was a mistake.
"Arian Foster said he wasn't 100% in the game. Said he came out fine. "I didn't play well," Foster said. #Texans
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) October 4, 2015"
"Arian Foster 'I could have felt better'
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) October 4, 2015"
For whatever reason, big-picture thinking seems to be frowned upon by NFL coaching staffs.
O'Brien can talk about how they're only focused on this week or that they look at it as 16 one-game seasons, but every logical thinker knows that the game against Indianapolis is significantly more important to their season than a win or loss against Atlanta.
While no one wants to fall to 1-3, even this loss to Atlanta only leaves them one game out of first place in their division. A loss to the Colts would be much more damaging.
The outcome of the game against Indianapolis will impact both the head-to-head and record-vs.-the-division tiebreakers against the team most likely to win the division. Out-of-conference games against teams like Atlanta carry no potential tiebreakers.
Indianapolis has struggled and Andrew Luck is banged up, but they're still the team to beat.
Foster is an older back at 29 and has a history of injury problems, so why risk playing him in a less important game with a short week coming up?
The Texans play the Colts in Week 5 on Thursday night, so having Foster available and fresh just four days later is no guarantee.
Hopefully I'm wrong and Foster not only suits up but plays well this Thursday, but that feels like a long shot.
Follow me on Twitter for more news and opinion on the Texans: @sackedbybmac
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