TEXANS VS. COLTS
The good, bad and ugly from the Texans' season-ending loss in Indianapolis
Dec 31, 2017, 3:51 pm
Jadeveon Clowney and Bernardrick McKinney were impact players on Sunday. Houstontexans.com
This was the final game of the season for the 2017 Houston Texans. The 22-13 loss to rival Indianapolis Colts mercifully ended what has been a dumpster fire of a season. The 4-12 record makes them the third worst team in the league in terms of record and tied for second worst record in the team’s history.
The Good
- Zach Cunningham had 12 tackles, four of which were solo. The rookie linebacker has been rounding into form as of late and was all over the field against the Colts. His sideline to sideline speed is undeniable. However, it’s his understanding of his assignments that I’ve noticed the most improvement in his game. He still has moments of looking out of place, but I look forward to what he can provide this team in the future.
- Jadeveon Clowney has proved he’s more valuable to this team than J.J. Watt. He chased Jacoby Brissett out of the pocket several times recording a half a sack, held up well against the run (sans that stiff arm from Marlon Mack), and dropped into coverage (where he laid Mack out to get revenge). Do not argue with me on this one. He’s proven himself worthy of perhaps the richest non-quarterback contract in the league.
-Benardrick McKinney has showed continued improvement. While his coverage skills still need work, he appears to have a much better understanding of the game. I particularly like the way he calls out adjustments to the defense. His passion for the game was on display when I noticed him trying to pump up his teammates after the safety punt.
The Bad
- Jonathan Joseph may have played not only his last game as a Texan, but his last game period. He no longer possesses the athletic ability that was his calling card early on in his career. He was badly beaten by T.Y. Hilton on the Colts first possession and fell down. Luckily, the pass was overthrown, or else it could have resulted in a touchdown.
-Another loss, another game in which this team averaged less than four yards per carry, 3.1 to be specific. What really puzzled me was that Lamar Miller averaged 4.6 yards per carry on eight carries, but Alfred Blue got 18 carries averaging a miniscule 2.2 yards per carry. The offensive line is partially to blame here, but at what point does this team need better talent in the backfield?
-Speaking of Blue, the mere fact that he led the team in receptions with four says all you need to know about how this game went and the depth this team doesn’t have. Second leading receiver was Chris Thompson, an undrafted rookie free agent.
The Ugly
- Will Fuller left the game with a knee injury in the first half. It didn’t seem too serious because he was standing on the sideline and appeared fine, but it’s a mere drop in the bucket to what they’ve experienced this year. The Texans have used 77 players this year and have 19 players on injured reserve.
-Chris Slade and Breno Giacomini had a terrible miscommunication that led to Yates getting sacked for a safety. Giacomini (playing right tackle) went wide as Slade (playing right guard) went towards the inside leaving a hole you could’ve driven a bus through. Thank God Yates didn’t take a huge hit and was able to get up. Offensive line play like this has hurt the run game as well as caused Tom Savage to get concussed. Deshaun Watson was running for his life before his unfortunate injury.
-Braxton Miller had an opportunity to step up to the plate to prove himself worthy of his status as a third round pick and help begin to dispel the bust talk that follows him. He had two catches for nine yards and one punt return for -3 yards. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, must be a duck? Right? I don’t know how he comes back to this team next year.
One thing I noticed about this game is that players didn’t give up and played hard. I didn’t see many “business decisions” being made by players who may have had their vacation bags packed already. There were even some chippy extracurricular activities following some plays. Sure, there were a few guys that didn’t run out plays, or attempt to chase a play down, but no full-on mailing it in. Bill O’Brien didn’t call plays as if he had punted on the season. Biggest evidence to this thought was the fact that he used all three timeouts with about 3-4 minutes left in an attempt to get the ball back while down 19-13. Games like these between two teams with nothing to play for can often be a snooze fest. While it wasn’t exciting, it was good to see it be competitive.
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It would be kind of funny if Christian Walker simply decided he wanted to check out what the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is all about. “Ow, my left oblique feels kind of sore. How about sending me to Houston for the weekend to get an MRI?” That would be quite a bodacious move, and total bull (props to you if you see what I did there). Of course, faking pain is not the case, and the Astros now cross their fingers that their 60-million dollar free agent signee doesn’t start his Houston tenure on the injured list. It certainly isn’t encouraging to know that Walker missed about 20 percent of last season with a left oblique injury. In 2021 he spent two stints on the IL because of right oblique problems. Obviously the Astros want return on their investment as quickly and as substantially as possible, but they would be fools not to treat this conservatively. Walker turns 34 years old the second day of the regular season. No one should be having night sweats just yet over the possibility that Walker is about to become Jose Abreu 2.0. Abreu was 36 when he debuted with the Astros. However, it is accurate to note that Abreu had a significantly higher WAR in his last season before joining the Astros than did Walker.
If Walker turns out to be sidelined for a month, that would mean the Astros need a first baseman for the first week and a half or so of the regular season. Let the drumbeat for Cam Smith begin! The sample size remains laughably small, but Smith continues to speak softly and swing a very, very big stick. If you’ll accept a .636 batting average as pretty good. It’s only 11 at bats. But yowza! If Walker is to be down into the regular season, and Smith keeps rocketing line drives in the Grapefruit League, the plot thickens. Smith only has 19 at bats above single-A. That’s 19 more than Albert Pujols had when the St. Louis Cardinals decided to have him in their lineup to begin the 2001 season. Albert did fairly well. He’s merely the greatest first baseman in National League history.
The much more conservative approach would be a platoon with Jon Singleton in the lineup against most right-handed pitchers and whoever is not catching between Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini playing against lefties. Zach Dezenzo would be another option. Cam Smith is not an option to play first base, at least not early in 2025. Just in the last few days, he’s started doing some outfield drills because of the possible pathway to the big club in right field that I wrote about last week. Cam Smith is not going to make a huge jump to the big leagues and basically try to learn a new position on the fly there. However, Isaac Paredes owns a first baseman’s glove. Paredes started 13 games at first for the Rays last season. He made 40 starts total at first over the last three seasons, his only big league starts at first, after a grand total of two at first in the minors. Paredes temporarily moving to first would open up third base for Smith. Just sayin’...
What's in a name?
File this more under trivial than trivia, but here goes. When Isaac Paredes takes the field in the season opener, he officially becomes the third Paredes in Astros’ history. Utility man Jimmy Paredes got some run during the franchise deep in the abyss stage from 2010-13. Relief pitcher Enoli Paredes got 32 1/3 innings in over three seasons 2020-22. There have been only six guys named Paredes in MLB history. Come March 27 the Astros will have had half of them.
On the farm
MLB Pipeline this week released its in order ranking of the Astros’ top 30 prospects. Cam Smith is the obvious number one. Brice Matthews is number two. Drafted as a shortstop, Matthews has a better route to the bigs as a second baseman, given the Astros’ weak depth chart there with Jose Altuve becoming primarily a left fielder. Outfielder Jacob Melton is third. Considering the present state of the Astros’ outfield and that Melton turns 25 this September, if worth a darn, he should play his way on to the 26-man roster at some point this year. Catcher Walker Yanek ranks fourth. He was the Astros’ first round pick last July. Dezenzo rounds out the top five.
We’re under three weeks until Opening Day. Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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