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Posted
13 hours ago, APMP said:

May not be 20 seconds, but it's a hell of a lot less than 2 minutes unless Bowles uses all his timeouts, which I don't think he would do if he only needs a FG to win. The mistake in your sequence is that the 2 minute warning would actually hit BEFORE the first and goal snap if Chubb went down in bounds. 

 

 

So TB would have had the ball with around 1:30 and no timeouts or between :50 and 1:00 with 1 timeout. That is plenty of time to get into FG range. As you say, TB might have even saved a timeout. I don't recall a team ever sliding short of the endzone so they can give the ball back up 2 points with a minute or more left. .

Unless you can effectively end the game I am pretty sure the analytics say take the 5 point lead with a chance to go up 7 and make the other team have to drive the field for a TD. 

Posted (edited)

Jimmie Ward was no-billed by the grand jury. He’s still on the commissioner’s exempt list and the Texans can’t do anything until he’s removed from that. Who knows how the Texans feel about him as a player and locker room presence. 

Edited by TonyTexas
Posted

The Texans are "Close" to What Exactly?

Head coach DeMeco Ryans said it. Quarterback C.J. Stroud echoed it. 

The Houston Texans are “close” on offense. 

Close to what?

At the conclusion of the 2024 season, the Texans fired offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. They held a lengthy search and settled on Nick Caley for the job. They began the 2025 season with new starters at all five offensive line positions. Houston revamped the wide receiver room. Nick Chubb led the running backs with Joe Mixon injured. 

No team has scored fewer points than the Texans. The team is 28th in yards per game. The pressure rate of Stroud is still in the top ten. The offense looked stale and uncreative. 

It hasn’t looked good for the revamped offense. 

“I think there's been a lot of growth,” Caley said this week. “Sometimes, if you sit there and live with the results and stuff, there is an element to that, obviously, but the process is more important.”

The process has been unimpressive. 

The offense from the preseason has been absent. The Texans threw quick passes and got the ball out of Stroud’s hand quickly in July and August. There was motion presnap. There was a trust in rookies to make plays. 

September has been marked by stagnation and a devotion to veterans. 

Pre-snap motion has been rare. Jaylin Noel caught a screen on third-and-long in the preseason and turned it into a first down. He’s been targeted one time in two games. Noel was dynamic with the ball in his hands on special teams. Half of the targets of Jayden Higgins have been explosive plays. The rookie wideout has four targets. Woody Marks, the receiving back specialist, has been targeted once. It went for 37 yards, the longest play of the season. 

Caley alone isn’t to blame. Stroud hasn’t been good. He’s missed open players, held onto the ball too long, and has had a rocky start with his new duties at the line of scrimmage. 

It’s a bevy of problems that all fold in on themselves. 

It’s also been two weeks of regular-season results. Two weeks with a new scheme, offensive line, and new players on offense. Two weeks without Christian Kirk, with whom Stroud had excellent chemistry in the preseason. Two weeks without a settled offensive line due to injuries. Two weeks of borderline excellent defenses from expected playoff teams. 

It doesn’t sound good at the podium, or look good through two weeks, but there’s plenty of time to prove this isn’t a repeat of Slowik’s failure. 

Ryans doesn’t seem to see the similarities. 

“I think we are much better,” he said. “I think our offensive line has done a really good job, much better than everybody gives them credit for. We've done a really good job picking up stunts, things like that. A guy here, a guy there gets beat, that's football. That's going to happen.”

Ryans said the team has to execute better and finish better, and if they do, they will get what they desperately need: a win. 

“You just got to win games, and the story changes. So, until we win games, I know we'll get those same questions. We should get them because we got to do a better job of playing and finishing games. Until we do that, then I understand the questions that we'll receive.”

Christian Kirk’s Return

Wide receiver Christian Kirk is set to return for the Texans. He was the player most in tune with C.J. Stroud in the preseason. Kirk was a quick winner against the defense of the Texans. He ran short routes where he was constantly open, and Stroud found him. 

It isn’t ideal to have the offense riding on a guy like Kirk, but the Texans need him. They didn’t seem to trust Jaylin Noel as a one-for-one replacement for Kirk. Braxton Berrios was also hurt. Kirk should provide a punch in the arm, but is he really a player who should be a key to so much of the offense? 

Nick Caley’s excuse for not being able to replicate the preseason offense didn’t include an excuse for Kirk’s absence. 

“I think just staying on schedule,” Caley said about what kept them from operating their offense. “I thought we made progress in that area. But, still, too many second-and-longs, still not as efficient as we want to be collectively. So, I'd say starting with that and trying to stay on schedule so you have the whole call sheet at your disposal that you've worked on throughout the week.”

Winning early downs with quick plays can help the Texans. It won’t fix everything, but it will help significantly. A small improvement should provide exponential results for the offense. If it doesn’t, the Texans might be in trouble. 

Dominance in Jacksonville

The Houston Texans have had plenty of success against the Jaguars. They have won seven consecutive games in Jacksonville. The Texans have also won 11 straight road AFC South matchups. 

Healthy Texans

The Houston Texans enter this matchup fairly healthy. Only cornerback Jaylin Smith is set to be unavailable. 

It will be interesting to see if the team uses their final promotion from the practice squad on fullback Jakob Johnson. He has been useful on special teams with varying success on offense. 

Defensive back Myles Bryant, cornerback Damon Arnette, and cornerback D’Angelo Ross are all options to be promoted from the practice squad. 

Center Jake Andrews had no injury designation. He should be back starting. That would put the offensive line that has practiced together the most on the field with Aireontae Ersery at left tackle, Laken Tomlinson at left guard, Ed Ingram at right guard, and Tytus Howard at right tackle. 

The line had some nice moments in week two, but it can still be better. C.J. Stroud and Nick Caley can help them out plenty with some success in the quick game. 

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