Houston Texans: Five takeaways from first preseason game

Pass rush was underwhelming

Give credit to the Carolina Panthers offensive line for doing a great job, but our defense is supposed to be what carries the team this year. So it’s not reassuring that Derek Anderson was able to throw as easily as he did against us. The secondary is already understaffed with the losses of A.J. Bouye and Quentin Demps, so the front seven will be as important as ever this season.

The offensive line for Carolina was stout throughout the game as well as Joe Webb III on his deep touchdown pass had all kinds of time to make the throw. Now that was against the second string squad and also it is important to keep in mind that J.J. Watt only played six plays as he slowly comes back from injury, but throughout the game the Texans overall did not display what they were best known for last year, which was making quarterbacks sweat and limiting the opponent’s passing game.

Hopefully as the preseason goes on and we see more reps from the first string we see the type of defense we were expecting based on last year. But it was definitely disconcerting seeing how easily Derek Anderson and Joe Webb III were overall allowed to sling the ball with the utmost confidence.