Houston Texans Week 4 Slay and Bomb

Back-to-back dominating performances by these Houston Texans. On the day that J.J. Watt was added to the ring of honor, this was the perfect tribute to his career. They started strong on both sides of the ball and never looked back. Houston controlled this game from start to finish, scoring on their first three drives and only allowing 63 total yards in the first half. All but three of the Texans’ drives went into Pittsburgh’s side of the field, and two of those three were past their own 40. Pittsburgh didn’t get into Houston’s territory until the first drive of the second half.

The Texans have played great over these last 2 games, and including the second half of the Colts game, the Texans are outscoring their opponents 77-26 in the last 10 quarters. That kind of dominance you don’t see a lot in the NFL, and it will come and go, but it sure is fun to watch when your team is on the right side of it. They have played very well in all three phases of the game, and they look to be having a lot of fun out there, which is something Houston has been missing on the football field.

Coming into the game with backups to backups playing on the O-line against T.J. Watt and the Steelers front seven seemed like it could be a nightmare for C.J. Stroud and the passing game. For the second week in a row, this makeshift offensive line didn’t allow a sack. Stroud got hit six times, but the game plan for protecting him and the receivers able to get open quickly neutralized Pittsburgh’s biggest weapon. Their defense is aggressive and will give up big plays in trade for bigger plays of their own. No sacks and no turnovers against this defense is an impressive feat, especially when Houston also put up 30 points and averaged 10 yards a pass attempt.

A week like this makes it hard to narrow down who exactly slayed and a little harder to find who bombed. A quick nod to the run game and Dalton Schultz who were both much improved this week after bombing the first few weeks. The run game looks to be on the right track, and Schultz almost doubled his yards for the season and caught his first touchdown on a halfback pass from Devin Singletary.

Texans Who SLAYED

 

Nico Collins

This Texans passing game is continuing to be one of the tops in the league. Stroud, after four weeks, is top five in passing yards and the only player with over five touchdown passes and no interceptions. Stroud’s favorite target has been going back and forth between Tank Dell and Nico Collins. This week was Collins, who had a huge seven-reception, 168-yard, two-touchdown day. His first reception was a two-yard touchdown on the first drive, and then his next six receptions, he averaged 27.6 yards, including his 52-yard touchdown that was the final nail in the coffin for the Steelers.

Nico’s run after the catch was a huge part of his success in this game. Most notably on the drive before the half when he took an 8-10 yard stop route 42 yards, and then caught another ball and ran for 15 yards to set up a field goal right before the half. It is like picking your poison with this offense. If you try to stop Collins, then Tank Dell will hurt you, and if you plan for Dell, then Nico will hurt you. Sprinkle in Robert Woods, Dalton Schultz, John Metchie, and the running backs, and Stroud is having a lot of fun with these weapons.

After four games, Nico Collins is top five in receiving yards, and only Justin Jefferson has more 20+ yard plays than Collins. He is also top 10 in first down reception, tied for 2nd in 40+ yard receptions, and has the most yards after the catch in the entire league. All of this without being in the top 15 in targets. Collins is having a true number-one receiver-type season and is exactly what this offense needs.

DeMeco Ryans

Congratulations to DeMeco Ryans on getting his first home win as a head coach. The win came exactly 17 years after his first home win as a Houston Texans player. The NFL scriptwriters are some of the best. In all seriousness, Ryans has turned this team around a lot faster than anyone expected. To go from losing by double digits in back-to-back weeks to winning by 20 or more in back-to-back weeks is a huge turnaround and is greatly influenced by the head coach.

A big key coming into the season was that if this team struggled, the players couldn’t quit on the coach. Once a team starts quitting on the coach, that coach’s tenure there is going to be over soon. This team has done the opposite. Since the second half of the Colts game, this has looked like a whole new team, and they are clicking on all cylinders. The offense is much more consistent and is moving the ball up and down the field at will, and the defense is coming together with the return of Jimmie Ward and Jalen Pitre. Allowing only two touchdowns in the last 25 drives. 

This is the Texans’ first win outside of the division since week 16 of the 2021 season. That was also the last time that Houston won two games in a row. With a team that should be getting healthier as everything is coming together, this is no longer a team that people will put down as a win before the game is played. None of the four games have been very close, so it will be interesting to see how the team performs in clutch time. I have a feeling Ryans will have his team ready.

Texans who BOMBED

 

Run Game

Wait, I thought the run game improved?

It did, but there is still more room that this team can get from its run game. On both sides of the ball. Dameon Pierce and Devin Singletary averaged 3.4 yards a carry this game and ran for five first downs combined. This is the first time this season that Pierce went over 40 yards but still was probably 5-6 carries away from his first 100-yard game. They are trending in the right direction, but being ranked 24th in rush offense and probably 26th after the Monday night game is not up to the standard that this team should have. They also play two pretty good run defenses in the next two weeks.

With another offensive lineman, Kendrick Green, going down with an injury in the 4th quarter, the Texans will desperately need Laremy Tunsil and Tytus Howard back next week. Juice Scruggs is a maybe for week 5, and if not, it should be ready for week 6.

On the defensive side of the ball, they allowed Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren to combine for 100 yards on 22 carries, a 4.5-yard per carry average. Since the Texans jumped out to an early lead, the Steelers only had 25 carries as a team. Nothing else was going for the Steelers, so this didn’t really have an effect on the game, but giving up 4.5 yards a carry is never a good thing for the defense. This is something that, if they get behind in a game that could come back and bite them. The next game is against one of the best-rushing offenses in the league and rookie sensation Bijan Robinson.

Penalties

The Texans are tied for 6th in the NFL with the most penalties so far in the season. This is the third game where they have had eight or more in a game. There were a few in this game that could have really hurt the Texans if the Steelers didn’t bail them out.

On the first drive of the game, Houston got all the way down to the one-yard line. Then a false start and an illegal man downfield, both on Shaq Mason, put them first and goal from the ten rather than the one. After a run for no gain, Pittsburgh committed pass interference and gave the Texans a new set of downs on the two-yard line, and they scored a touchdown two plays later. Without pass interference, it is probably 3rd and goal from the ten, and there is a good chance it is a field goal. 

Later, a pass interference took away another interception by the Texans, then a few plays later, and offsides made it 3rd and 4 instead of 3rd and 9. Again, the Steelers hurt themselves by getting an offensive pass interference on the next play and bailing out the Texans. 

An intentional grounding penalty on 3rd down moved the Texans back 14 yards and set up the Steelers in good field position. The defense was able to hold them to just a field goal.

In this game, it seemed that whenever a penalty was committed the Texans were able to overcome it, or the Steelers bailed them out. In most NFL games, these costly penalties are the difference between a win and a loss. Kudos to the Texans for not letting these plays have an effect on the outcome and rising to the occasion the few times they were faced with adversity in this game.

It is hard to say that anything really “bombed” when a team wins by 24, and the game was never really that close. The Texans had twice as many total yards as the Steelers (451 to 225) and scored on 60% of their drives. The defense sacked Kenny Pickett three times and Stroud didn’t get sacked once. Texans got an interception while Stroud kept his streak of no interceptions going and continued his record. This was a great game for the Texans, and they hope to keep the momentum going in Atlanta against a team that just got beat pretty badly by the Jaguars in London.

See Also: 5 Greatest Players in the History of the Houston Texans