Houston Texans: How Kevin Johnson has begun his ascent to greatness

The Houston Texans were categorically bad against the Los Angeles Rams Sunday but there were a few shining stars and Kevin Johnson was one of those guys.

This game for the Houston Texans against the Los Angeles Rams was what I expected in terms of the offensive performance against their opponent. The team did make things interesting for a spell before the end of the first half; but after that, that particular unit fell of a cliff.

Tom Savage, despite the effort he was giving, had the inability to keep the chains moving when the team needed him the most in the field. One can blame the offensive line for a lot of that but as a quarterback, a good one must have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and persevere nonetheless.

That didn’t happen and ultimately if you can’t score enough points to win the game then you will lose. I’m sorry to be Captain Obvious here but it’s so true and was the biggest concern that I had going into this game.

The defense carried this team as long as they could, keeping the Houston Texans in the game but they tired out at the end. That’s when Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Sammy Watkins went to work to put the nail in the coffin with the Houston Texans being on the extremely short end of the stick. They, of course, fell to the Rams 33-7.

But do you know who shined?

It was Kevin Johnson, our 1st rounder from 2015, demonstrating to us that he’s ready to begin his ascent to be the featured corner back on our team and one of the best in the league. He still has a

long way to go before we can anoint him with that notion but after this game, especially against an elite offense, he looks like he’s well on his way.

Johnson delivered four bone-crunching tackles — with one assisted — that indicates his injury that he sustained earlier in the season — that caused him to miss five games — is quickly starting to be of little concern with each day that passes.

As a matter of fact, Pro Football Focus gave him a solid grade of an 83.0.

Here’s what else they had to add say about his performance:

"“Johnson was stout in coverage, as he was only targeted twice, allowing one catch for negative two yards. Johnson also contributed in run defense, with two stops on his way to a 87.6 grade in that department.”"

This certainly is true with as well as he played out on the field because he hasn’t necessarily been

More from House of Houston

turning in good performances up until this point. The play that stood out to be me was with 4:16 left in the first half when Johnson was able to effectively disrupt Jared Goff‘s connection with tight end Tyler Higbee. He even did a short dance after the play to which I knew he was having fun out there and getting into a groove.

Yes, he did give up the 43-yard catch by Gurley earlier in the quarter but he made up for it with that play. Because of one hell-like play that was made by Jadeveon Clowney a few downs later — a tackle for a loss of seven yards — we still were able to prevent them to get into the end zone and they had to settle with Greg Zuerlein to kick the field goal. When one’s only catch that’s allowed is for negative yardage, then obviously they know they’re doing something right.

Next: T.J. Yates should be named the starting quarterback

And Johnson did so. With so much negativity that injuries has had on our team this season, we can at least look at the young guys like Johnson to give us some hope to finish this season in a respectable manner regardless of what that win-loss column looks like.

And that’s how I view this season from this point forward — see you next week.

Go Texans.

Home/Houston Texans