With a little over half the season behind them, it’s difficult to judge the performance of the Houston Texans thus far. On one hand, the team has been limping through the past three weeks, taking losses to the New York Jets and Green Bay Packers. On the other hand, they’ve been plagued with injury, as they’ve lost Stefon Diggs for the rest of the year, and Nico Collins is working on returning to the field now. All of these issues beg the question of whether the Houston Texans will still be a Superbowl contender or just another playoff team.
Passing Game: B+
Going into the season, the Houston Texans were considered to have one of the best passing offenses in the NFL. They’ve had to deal with two red alert issues, though, one of which is the lack of receivers due to injury. Watching C.J. Stroud play with only Tank Dell as a reliable option is way different than watching him play with his full arsenal of weapons behind him.
In general, he holds the ball a bit longer and is usually forced out of the pocket before he can make anything meaningful happen. That being said, Collins is soon to return, and that should end lots of the passing woes for the young quarterback for the Houston Texans.
The other glaring issue is pass blocking; it’s not that good. In the previous loss to the New York Jets, Stroud got hit eight times. Just watching them play also shows how often Stroud gets pressured before he hits his first read or can adjust. The coaching staff is working on this, though, and they might get the offensive line to lower the amount of times Stroud gets hit.
Running Game: A-
Joe Mixon is proving at 28 years of age that he can still run like he’s 24. Watching him barrel through would-be tacklers is making watchers feel very nostalgic for his best days in Cincinnati. Mixon is as tough to bring down as any running back in the league, especially since it’s hard to predict whether he will put a move on an opponent or just lower his shoulder and run through them.
The only thing keeping this running game from a full A grade is how they play when Mixon is injured. Neither Cam Akers nor Dave Ogunbowale could fill the hole left by Mixon when he got injured. Of course, those are big shoes to fill, but ground yardage went down so drastically when he was gone that it shows how valuable Mixon is to this team.
Defense: B
The defense for the Houston Texans won’t be talked about as one of the more elite squads in the league. That being said, there were several big moments during the season where the defense needed to come through and they delivered.
It was the defense that held the Jaguars to a goal-line stand in Week 6, stopped Josh Allen from driving the field at the end of the game in Week 5, and had Anthony Richardson getting tired in Week 8. They’ve only held one opponent to under 20 points (Chicago Bears), but this defense can keep games close enough to where Stroud and Mixon can win it on offense.
Overall: B+
It’s almost a foregone conclusion at this point that the Houston Texans will win the AFC South. This team has seen the first round of the playoffs very often, though. The roster is constructed to go further than that, to an AFC Championship and maybe even the Superbowl. As of right now, though, it looks like they are a step behind Kansas City and Baltimore as leaders of the AFC.
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