Texans improve to 1-4
Deep dive: Here's how the Texans picked up their first victory of the season vs. Jags
Oct 12, 2020, 2:04 pm
The Texans got their first win of the season on Sunday. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
For the first time this season, the results of the game brought joy to the Houston Texans' locker-room. In his first victory as interim head coach, the team presented Romeo Crennel with the game ball following the Texans' 30-14 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday afternoon, inside the NRG Stadium in Houston.
As a result of capturing their first win, Crennel celebrated with several old school dance moves, according to cornerback Bradley Roby. Before moving on to a potential Week 6 game against the Tennessee Titans, here is a deep dive into the Texans' first victory of the season this past Sunday.
"Man, he did like five dances," Roby said. "He did the Soulja Boy, he did the Macarena, he started doing the disco. I didn't know what he was doing. It was funny though. NFL games are hard to win, so just playing in the league so long, you've got to enjoy each one."
Brandin Cooks and Deshaun Watson brought Houston's offense life
During the first game of the post-Bill O'Brien era — for once — the Texans' offense did not look conservative nor predictable. The results ended in Houston recording a season-best 486 total yards with 357 coming in the passing game. Deshaun Watson had a connection with each of his receivers, but none more so than Brandin Cooks.
After he failed to record a catch during last week's loss against the Vikings, Cooks had his best game as a member of the Texans. He notched a season-best 161 yards on eight receptions, showing promise as the incumbent to DeAndre Hopkins as Watson's top receiver.
The growing chemistry between the quarterback-to-receiver duo was on display during Cooks' only touchdown of the game. While standing on 4th-and-4 late in the fourth quarter, Watson threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Cooks to seal the win for Houston.
The play on fourth-down exemplified the risk Crennel and offensive coordinator Tim Kelly are willing to take — something O'Brien has shied away from several times throughout his tenure in Houston.
In addition to Cooks, Will Fuller made four catches for 58 yards, while Darren Fells had two receptions for 57 yards. Both players scored once on a touchdown pass from Watson.
"That was a great move on his part to get the touchdown, all I was trying to do was get the first down because it was a two-score game," Crennel said. "Even though it would have put points on the board, potentially it might not have made a difference if they had gone down and scored. And so I wanted to try to get that done and kind of put it out of reach and make it much tougher for them to have a chance to come back."
.@BrandinCooks is BALLIN' today! 📺: CBS 📱: https://t.co/Nm64mQkAPf https://t.co/kXQC10O0HT— Houston Texans (@Houston Texans) 1602445577.0
The Texans finally recorded a turnover, but more importantly stopped the run
Fair or unfair, the most decrepit part of the Texans' defense was their inability to stop the run. Coming into Sunday's game, Houston had allowed a league-worst 181.1 rushing yards on the ground. Over the past three games, the Texans gave up an average of 87.3 rushing yards in the fourth quarter alone.
While James Robinson does not provide the same threat as Mark Ingram, James Conner or Dalvin Cook, the rookie running back was no daunting task to defend. Robinson received Offensive Rookie of the Month honors for September — after recording 285 yards (4.8 AVG) on 60 carries, to go along with three touchdowns through his first four games.
As they held the Jaguars to 75 total yards on the ground, the Texans only gave up 48 yards on 13 carries to Robinson. The amount of pressure coming from Houston's front seven on each rushing attempt led to a costly fumble by Robinson — which was recovered by J.J. Watt.
The pressure the Texans displayed against the Jaguars not only stopped the run, but made it a tumultuous day for Jacksonville quarterback, Gardner Minshew. Houston tallied five quarterback hits, three sacks and forced Minshew into his second fumble of the season.
"All week long we harped on the fundamentals, we harped on everybody doing their job, getting back to the basics, and I thought we did that well," Watt said. "Obviously, that in conjunction with stopping them early in the game, offense putting up points and then putting them in situations where they had to throw the ball late in the game makes a massive difference. We're very pleased with the way we played on defense today. We have to continue to do that and improve and get ourselves even better."
Finally, some luck fell into the Texans' favor
The Texans had a great game on both sides of the ball, but it was far from perfect. Houston had a few causes for concern despite the win, but more so with their secondary. The Texans' defensive backs gave up several big plays down the field, which included a 51-yard completion from Minshew to Chris Conley that resulted in a touchdown four plays later.
The substantial drives where Jacksonville recorded 15 or more yards through the air is what kept the Jaguars in the game until late in the fourth quarter. Had Jacksonville converted on two missed field goals and a Robinson fumble, this game could have easily gone in the Jaguars favor.
Thankfully, for the first time this season, Lady Luck saw fit to shine her light among the franchise of the Houston Texans.
"I think that our guys played extremely hard, and we weren't able to take advantage of a certain sequence of the two turnovers," Jacksonville's head coach Doug Marrone said after the loss. " We weren't able to get the momentum back on our side or turn them into points or touchdowns. So there were opportunities out there that we didn't take advantage of and that's why we came out with the loss."
Up next, the Texans will look to make it two wins in a row Sunday against the 3-0 Tennessee Titans. The Titans are expected to play their Week 4 match against the Bills on Tuesday due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”