Andre Johnson: Why His Injury Will Ruin Texans' Season

Once Andre Johnson went down holding his hamstring on the turf in Houston at Reliant Stadium you could feel the energy and momentum get sucked from the Houston Texans’ fanbase.

With the way that he suddenly and dramatically fell to the turf, it looked as if there was a sniper up in the rafters waiting for Johnson to be in the open field.

It was confusing and scary to see the Texans' best player not getting up after an injury when he wasn’t hit and there was no one around him. 

This injury was even more detrimental to this Texans team as they were in complete control against the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Their star running back Arian Foster was finally back at 100 percent and looked as if he was back to his old form from last year.  

The news has yet to come out what the MRI says about Johnson’s injury. All that Texans fans know of yet is that it’s a right hamstring injury.  

It’s the unknown that has Texans and fantasy football owners of Andre Johnson in paralyzing fear.  

At least for fantasy owners there are people they can sub in to take his spot.  

For the Texans and their fans, it’s the fear of the unknown receivers that play behind Johnson.  

It’s not surprising that Andre Johnson leads this Texans team in every offensive category, except for touchdowns, where Owen Daniels has three to Johnson’s two.  

But Johnson led the team with 25 receptions on 37 targets for 352 yards.  

If you're a scared Texans fan, stop reading now because it’s going to get ugly from this point forward.  

The next best wide receiver on this team, not including Owen Daniels since he’s a tight end, is Jacoby Jones. Jones on the year, playing next to Andre Johnson (while Johnson is getting double to triple-teamed every game), has seven receptions on 10 targets for 91 yards.  

He’s getting single coverage and only has 10 targets. That’s almost four times as less than what Johnson was demanding.  

At least when Arian Foster went down they were able to lean on Ben Tate to shoulder the load. Now Tate’s hurt with Johnson, and who knows how long Foster’s hamstring will be able to hold up. 

The Texans season was looking so promising after one quarter against the six-time Super Bowl champion Steelers. Now it’s looking more like another 8-8 season, pending on how long Johnson is out. 

Twitter: @tjmcaloon