Quick Recap: Texans Hoyeribble In Loss To Chiefs
By Yoni Pollak
The Houston Texans were outplayed, outcoached and out-everything’d in their week 1 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
It didn’t take long for fans to realize the defense may be a bit overrated to start the season. They they didn’t allow points on their first drive but they didn’t show much of anything either.
And on offense? Well their first play from scrimmage pretty much summed up the game. Hoyer dropped back and threw a perfect pass to the Chiefs’ Marcus Peters, with DeAndre Hopkins a good five feet away from Peters.
The Chiefs dropped 27 points on the Texans in the first half. The pass-rush was non-existent and Johnathan Joseph got worked like ________ (you can fill in the blanks).
To Brian Hoyer‘s credit, his good throws were quite solid. However they weren’t often enough and the Texans offense mimicked their defense with their poor effort. Hoyer was short on a deep throw that Cecil Shorts should have easily scored on, and even his throw to Nate Washington in the endzone could have ended up with points if he put some more zip on the ball.
Yes, those two plays could have easily been flagged for pass interference. I was fine with no flag on the Shorts play but thought that Washington play should have been flagged. Whatever the case may be, a different quarterback could have made a better throw and both should have been touchdowns.
Insert Ryan Mallett. Well, Bill O’Brien made that switch a bit too late in this game. After multiple drives with no points the Texans head coach finally made the switch to Mallett and he looked pretty good.
Mallett led the Texans to a TD drive, throwing a nice 8-yard bullet to Hopkins for a touchdown. His next drive ended in a field goal, though all-in-all, Mallett looked much better than Hoyer today.
The Texans didn’t deserve to win this game but they certainly could have ended up with a win. But instead, they made bad throws, didn’t play much defense and now start the season at 0-1.
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- Hopkins’ drop on third-and-one in the 3rd quarter was an unfortunate beginning to an end of a good drive by Hoyer. That non-score was a brutal blow.
- Kevin Johnson looked great today. They weren’t throwing towards him for a reason. JJo on the other hand…vomit.
- Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney were mostly unnoticeable today. Not a good look for players that will have plenty of one-on-one opportunities this year.
- J.J. Watt is still amazing. He was the only one worth a damn on defense.
- Special teams was horrendous again. Returns were terrible, coverage was terrible, Bullock missed an extra point and couldn’t get the ball in the back of the endzone on kickoffs.
- Akeem Dent should work on his coverage skills. I think Travis Kelce is still wide open on the field as I type this.
- Officials were in preseason form today. Way too many mistakes.
- The offensive line was roughed up today. Credit to the Chiefs front-seven, they’re spectacular, but our boys up front need to do better.
- I like our receivers. (I don’t count Keshawn Martin as a receiver).
- Texans going with running back by committee with Arian Foster out. I personally prefer Grimes and Polk to Blue.
- Mallett should start next week. Should have started this past week. Should have started all last season. Why am I not the coach of this team?!?
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