Texans lose in OT to Kansas City. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images.
Here's what this insanely too early 2023 mock draft could mean for Davis Mills, Texans
The Houston Texans played hard again but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 30-24. Here are 11 observations from the game.
1. The team plays hard for head coach Lovie Smith. Smith said after the game his one-win football team doesn’t play like they have one win. He’s right. Back-to-back performances for the team against opponents who should have outclassed them.
2. Davis Mills showcased some of the abilities that had the franchise invest in him this offseason. He was quick with decisions at times and safely extended a few plays. It was an overall positive performance for Mills who hasn’t had a lot of those this season.
3. The fumble to basically end the game is an ugly ribbon on the day. The Texans needed just a field goal to win, and Davis Mills fumbled the ball away to the Chiefs. I suppose it was trying to do too much, but wasn’t the worst decision ever from a quarterback in Mills’ position. A sack likely means a Texans punt.
4. The Jeff Driskel experiment should be over. It was a surprising novelty last week, but it didn’t work this week.
5. The rushing Driskel experiment torpedoed a drive for the Texans. The team trailed by three and was in the red zone. Driskel hadn’t carried the ball on the drive, in fact, Royce Freeman was having the drive of his life. He’d been mauling defenders. Pep Hamilton inserted Driskel, who lost yards. The Texans would kick a field goal.
6. Where has Royce Freeman been? He was a breath of fresh air on the running back depth chart. He had the most consistent attempts of the day. He’s been with the organization for over a year and he’s just now getting an opportunity. Slightly annoying.
7. Lovie Smith trusted his defense at midfield on a fourth and one. He confirmed as much postgame. His defense allowed a 90+ yard Kansas City drive. His offense needed just one yard to keep a drive alive. Smith might have missed that one.
8. The Texans have no constant feel for their kicking game. Ka'imi Fairbairn has a 61-yard field goal in this stadium. They have passed on 54-yard attempts at home and let him kick 54-yard attempts on the road. Today, with eight seconds left, the Texans opted for a kneel down instead of giving their kicker a long attempt after one play.
9. The offensive line for the Texans kicked ass Sunday. It has been in a groove for the past few weeks. Laremy Tunsil should be an All-Pro. Tytus Howard bumped inside with injuries to the offensive line, and Charlie Heck played fine at right tackle. Good job by this unit.
10. The defense had some solid moments against Patrick Mahomes. They were very aggressive and made him pay for extending plays. Lovie Smith even dialed up a well-timed blitz or two. The Chiefs turned out to be too much, but it was a valiant effort.
11. The NFL is about wins and losses. The Texans have the fewest wins. The Texans have the most losses. The Texans are playing harder, but it is likely too little too late for this group. Frank Ross the special teams coach and his crew have an argument to stick around, but the rest don’t. It’s too little, too late for the current coaching staff.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.