Houston Texans: Team’s rushing attack is the strongest it has ever been

The Houston Texans rushing attack continues to receive high marks through the first four weeks of the season. It’s as strong as it has ever been. How? Look.

Houston Texans fans — let’s not sulk too much about Sunday’s loss at the hands of the Carolina Panthers.  There were many things that this team got right in that matchup; but unfortunately, what’s highlighted is what the team got wrong in this loss.

This loss certainly is a learning experience for this team as I don’t think they estimated the power of Christian McCaffrey and Kyle Allen appropriately.  McCaffrey finished the game with nearly 200 all-purpose yards and although Allen didn’t throw a touchdown pass or interception, he still played mostly clean football against the Houston Texans.

The Panthers’ pass rush was getting to Deshaun Watson pretty easily, having him take six sacks on the day.  Now some of those sacks are on DW4 because we all know he likes to hold on to the football a few seconds longer than the average offensive line can hold the dam preventing the defensive lineman from breaking through.

I honestly feel this is something we’ll have to live with as Watson is continuously thirsty in trying to go out and make the big play.  I’d love to see him work on this but as long as the team is successful, this may not matter.  But it sure as hell would extend the longevity of his career.

Nonetheless, let’s talk about the rushing attack for the Houston Texans to which it has, in my opinion, been as good it has ever been with three featured guys — Watson, Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson — all providing a tremendous boost to the Houston Texans‘ run game.

Pro Football Focus recently highlighted this notion:

These grades by PFF would be deemed as close to excellency for Hyde and Watson and quite solid

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for Johnson, the rushing yet solid pass-catcher out of the backfield.

Arian Foster was a one-man wrecking show — we all know Matt Schaub couldn’t run — and still is the Houston Texans‘ leading all-time rusher with 6,472 yards and 54 touchdowns to his credit from the 2009-15 seasons.

But when is the last time that you’ve seen THREE guys — including the quarterback — mount such a strong attack on offense?

Hyde (250), Johnson (146) and Watson (75) have combined for 471 rushing yards on the season along with four touchdowns of which three of those belonging to Watson.

The NFL’s leading rusher so far on the season is McCaffrey, who has 411 yards.

It’s an understatement to say that the trades that brought both Hyde and Johnson to the Houston Texans along with Watson’s innate ability to make things happen has been a tremendous success.

I couldn’t be prouder and I hope to see exponential improvement week-after-week.

Let’s keep it going — go Houston Texans!