Houston Texans: Ellington and Foreman dazzle in team win over Patriots

The Houston Texans returned home for the first time in nearly a month as they took on the team that ended their season in January. How did it go?

The team that made the greatest comeback in NFL history returned to the stadium they won the Super Bowl in February to take on the Houston Texans in a preseason exhibition game. Luckily for the Houston Texans, the Patriots were not able to make a comeback for the second time in a row at NRG as they won 27-23.

Here are my thoughts:

Offense

The day started with Tom Savage driving the Texans offense down field, but came up short on 4th down in the red zone. It’s preseason guys, don’t be so mad about it. This is the time to test things out. Although the first drive was unsuccessful, Savage led the Texans down field once again but this time was successful.

With 1:20 left to go in the first, Savage throws an absolute strike to Jaelen Strong to put the Texans up 7-0 on the Patriots. Let me just say something real quick, Bruce Ellington was an absolute STEAL off free agency waiver wire. The cool thing is how he was just signed this last week, had little to no practice time with the Texans, but went on the field and put on a display for the home crowd. Ellington finished with four critical catches for 93 yards with an average of 23.3 yards per catch.

I jumped out of my seat when he caught that ball over Super Bowl 49 hero Malcolm Butler. Plus in the 2nd quarter, Watson threw a missile to him and he juggled it for a second, gained control of the ball and took the rock 33 yards deep into Patriots territory. Speaking of Deshaun Watson, had an up-and-down night.

One of his biggest plays of the night was throwing an absolute dart into coverage and connecting with D’Onta Foreman for 63 yards. Foreman muscled his away past defenders, setting up the play on the New England four-yard line that I’ll talk about next. I have to say that Foreman certainly does look like a No. 1 back with the way he continues to dominate on the ground but I’ll need to see him get more reps against the starters.

More from House of Houston

Speaking of that, Watson did his best James Harden impression as he faked out a defender and took it into the house to put the Texans up 17-16 at that point in the game. The thing we for sure have to get situated is the offensive line. When Watson was out there, there were lots of Pats’ defenders getting through. But nonetheless, I am confident that the problem will get corrected by Week 1.

Defense

Even though it was only one series, it felt really good to see J.J. Watt back on the field. The crowd went wild when he broke through for a tackle for loss of two yards on Rex Burkhead.

There was a lot of blown coverage by the secondary today which worries me. I don’t know whose assignment it was but it really made me angry when Burkhead caught a ball from Brady across the middle and went to the house untouched. That is unacceptable and needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

But, let’s put some spotlight on Denzel Rice. He made that fantastic leap to intercept Jimmy Garoppolo late in the game and he took it 39 yards into Pats territory. That interception set up D’Onta Foreman’s game-winning four-yard touchdown. Of course, I didn’t forget about Ufomba Kamalu‘s hit on Jacoby Brissett to seal the deal for the Texans last night.

Special Teams

This is probably a reason why I’ve been having chest pains lately, our special teams continues to be very sloppy. It’s the same problem the Texans have always had and will continue to have until the end of the world.

We can’t keep continuing to let the opposing teams returner to break tackles and get away for more yards, Cyrus Jones killed us that one play and it was not a pretty sign to watch, they should have had him brought down as soon as he started his return.

Watt’s Next?

The team will practice at their own training facility in front of their fans for two days, those days are Monday and Tuesday before heading into NOLA for the rest of the week to face the Saints.

The Texans will take them on Saturday night, then they will return to Houston to take on their I-45 rivals — the Dallas Cowboys — at home.

Next: A Dream Super Bowl Matchup

It will interesting to see what happens at practice this week, hopefully Watson could start against the Saints on Saturday.

GO TEXANS!

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