Things must change for Houston on defense

Kansas City collapse proves defense needs new direction

Kansas City collapse proves defense needs new direction

The Texans defense falls apart in loss to Chiefs

Seven straight touchdown drives

The Texans allowed seven consecutive touchdown drives. Seven. No stops in there. The first Chiefs drive was an easy pitch and catch for the Chiefs that saw the Texans totally lose the Chiefs receivers. The next two, maybe a little tougher to criticize. Two short fields though were turned into touchdowns with little effort from Kansas City. There were no fourth down conversions. There were no miraculous highlight plays. Just offense. It worked. Really well. The Chiefs rarely saw third down after two early drops on the key down.

The Lonnie Johnson plan failed miserably

Lonnie Johnson was tasked with defending Travis Kelce. He did little of that. Kelce dropped a play early, but the Chiefs tight end dominated the Texans from that point on. 10 catches for 134 yards and three touchdowns was the day for the Chiefs best offensive weapon.

Yes, Tashaun Gipson and Jahleel Addae were missing but there is no excuse for ineptitude by the defense when defending Kanas City's tight end.

Defensive composition contains same questions as start of 2019

The Texans have all the same questions on defense at the end of their season that persisted before the start of the season.

There is no clear solution at cornerback. Lonnie Johnson has looked lost more often than not. Johnathan Joseph could be close to retirement and finally has had injuries creep up as a concern for him. Gareon Conley is assuredly on the team after the team used a third round pick on him in a trade. Vernon Hargreaves is due nearly $10 million next season and has yet to impress since showing up in Houston.

There is nearly no pass rush. Irregular contributions from Jacob Martin and Charles Omenihu were nice surprises but they stayed irregular. J.J. Watt had a lot of success, and he could be counted on to a degree, but he's another year older. Whitney Mercilus is here to stay with his new contract despite a down season of production.

Historic failure

The above stat says it all.

Romeo's time has passed

It is time for Romeo Crennel to go. The game has now passed him by. There are too may young quarterbacks doing amazing things on offense for a defensive coordinator like him to continue coaching. There are rarely adjustments and any sort of quarterback mobility renders plans useless often.

Bill O'Brien can't stand pat after this type of performance. He has to find someone else to run his defense. They will have to get better with coaching, because there won't be a ton of options to improve their team with draft picks and money.

After the game, Bill O'Brien said he expected Crennel to return to the team.

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The Astros beat the Guardians, 4-2. Photo by Jack Gorman/Getty Images.

Jeremy Peña had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, Colton Gordon got his first major league win and the Houston Astros defeated the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 on Friday night.

Christian Walker drove in a pair of runs in the fifth inning and Brendan Rodgers added a solo shot in the sixth as the Astros improved to 3-1 on their six-game road trip.

Gordon (1-1), who was making his fifth start, allowed one run on seven hits and struck out five. The left-hander was an eighth-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft.

Josh Hader recorded his 17th save, tied for second in the American League.

David Fry homered for the Guardians, who have dropped three of four. Carlos Santana had his 14-game hitting streak snapped.

It is the second hitting streak this season of at least 10 games for Peña. The shortstop is batting .449 (22 of 49) with three home runs and six RBIs during his current run.

Houston took the lead with three runs in the fifth off Cleveland starter Logan Allen (3-4). Peña scored from second on a deep infield single by Jose Altuve and Walker drove in a pair with a base hit to right.

Key moment

Cleveland had a chance to do some damage in the first inning, but Angel Martínez and José Ramírez were thrown out at second by Houston left fielder Mauricio Dubón when they tried to extend base hits into doubles.

DubĂłn joined Toronto's Addison Barger as outfielders with a pair of assists in one inning this season.

Key stat

Houston's struggles with the bases loaded continues. The Astros were 0 for 2 Friday night and are last in the majors with a .146 batting average.

Up next

Houston RHP Hunter Brown (8-3, 1.83 ERA) is tied for the AL lead in wins. Cleveland will go with RHP Gavin Williams (5-3, 3.79 ERA).

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