Week 6 – Texans v.s. Rams: Game Breakdown

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

You can only laugh at this point. Your team which was expected to make another run for the Super Bowl is now 2-4 and even in those two wins they were barely able to squeak out the victory. So many problems with this team that one small fix won’t make them better. Yesterday it was penalties and turnover that killed the team. A good football team would be able to fix those mistakes in the next game but the Texans have yet to fix anything in their last four games. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad from the Texans 38-13  loss to the Rams.

What Went Right

• Arian Foster – 20 rushes for 141 yards + 4 receptions for 51 yards. Foster looked like his old self this game and was a missed tackle here and there from taking some runs to the house.

What Went Wrong

Note: Yes I know, everything else went wrong. I will only point to specific things here and not the classic things that go wrong with this team every single game. 

• DeAndre Hopkins – The rookie had his first terrible moment in the first half. With the Texans driving, Hopkins fumbled a ball inside the Texans Red Zone and the Rams recovered it and took it back 43 yards which lead to a Greg Zuerlein field goal.
• Tackling Zac Stacy – Zac Stacy owned the Texans defense breaking six tackles in his 18 carries. The Texans have been a pretty good run defense but they allowed Stacy to run for 79 yards and a 4.4 average.
• T.J. Yates – Matt Schaub played pretty well considering how poorly he had played previously. Yates however was awful. Yates threw the mandatory pick-6, and threw another one later in the game.
• Shane Lechler – The team MVP through five weeks, Lechler had a poor punt in the first quarter giving the Rams good field position which lead to a scoring drive.
• No sacks – The Texans pass-rush gave Bradford all day to throw and he made all the right throws given the time in the pocket.
• J.J. Watt – His worse game in a long time, Watt missed a few tackles in the backfield and never even recorded a tackle in the game. Watt some pressure on Bradford but not enough to rattle him.
• The Kareem Jackson PI – Should not have been called. Terrible call which lead to the Rams first TD. Horrific.
• Kubiak – He’s not helping his team out and not changing things up with the offense. Something needs to happen here.

The Turning Point

In such a bad game it’s tough to say one play was the difference maker. In this game though, I think the DeAndre Hopkins fumble in the first quarter may have severely lowered the Texans chances in this game. Schaub was throwing the ball well early and hitting his receivers for 10+yard gains. After an Andre Johnson 19-yard catch, the Texans had the ball at the STL 26-yard line. Schaub made a good throw to Hopkins and as he was going down, Hopkins fumbled the ball at the 14-yard line and the Rams recovered it for a 43-yard gain. The Rams would go onto score a field goal and though it was still plenty early in the game, the Texans squandered another chance in what would be a mistake-filled game for the Texans.

My Final Thoughts

It hurts real bad. I was 10-years old when this team started and I’ve been a die-hard fan since. I’ve lived through the “Rosencopter” the “Half-Back Pass” and the “Q-Tip” but I’ve never felt worse as a Houston sports fan than after yesterday’s game. Four consecutive losses and the Texans have eaten me alive. It’s sickening to see this team which has so much talent play this type of football. In a year that was supposed to be another playoff-bound year, the Texans do not even look like a .500 team. Things need to change and it starts with the Head Coach. We will see what happens over the course of the next week as the Texans prepare to face the undefeated Chiefs in Kansas City.