Houston Texans: Five takeaways from first preseason game

What was with all the penalties?!

The Houston Texans looked real rough when it came to discipline. They had a total of 12 penalties for 91 yards, but 10 of them were in the first half for 72 yards. That included three that were offensive holding calls, two of which put the Texans in first and long situations on the third drive of the game that they were still able to recover from and score a touchdown.

Some were also just dumb penalties as well, especially the one on the punt in the second quarter when Eddie Pleasant just had no regard for where the football was and was too excited to try and tee off on the punter returner Kaelin Clay, arriving at least two to three seconds too early (which doesn’t sound like a lot of time but in terms of jumping a punt returner, it is quite early.)

This was a first preseason game against a strong defense so it shouldn’t be a trend, but it is worrisome that it was in the first half with first stringers out there. If we see more of this in the second and third preseason games it will be more of a concern, but as of now this hopefully is just an aberration.