The Texans have plenty of good they would like to carry over from the Chargers win

Offensive line and second down success here to stay?

Offensive line and second down success here to stay?
@HoustonTexans

Deshaun Watson's no look pass

3 Headlines, 2 Questions, and 1 Bet as the Texans are 2-1 readying themselves for Kyle Allen and the Panthers.

Offensive line stands out for the right reason

Daniel Jeremiah is the Chargers color analyst for radio as well as the top NFL draft analyst for NFL Network. He was really impressed with the Texans offensive line which featured rookie Tytus Howard at right tackle and rookie Max Scharping at left guard.

The improvements were clear. Yes, Deshaun Watson had a few times where he had to use his magician-like escape powers to get away but the cold hard stats don't lie.

Week 1 at Saints: 6 sacks and 11 QB hits

Week 2 vs Jaguars: 3 sacks and 7 QB hits (Worth noting four days later Jacksonville had NINE sacks in a game)

Week 3 at Chargers: 2 sacks and 6 QB hits

The rushing game lacked consistency and success but the line has shown the ability to get it going already this season.

Last year I opined for the Texans to put together a game where the line did two things well. Most games last year featured acceptable run blocking OR acceptable pass blocking. Even if they had put it together for one game in 2018 it wouldn't have looked good, just average.

The top end for this offensive line is higher than any Texans line since they had multiple Pro Bowl linemen in Duane Brown, Chris Myers, and Wade Smith.

"Everybody got thrown on yesterday"

When I asked O'Brien about Johnathan Joseph getting targeted a lot in the second half, his response covered his whole secondary.

"I mean, everybody got thrown on yesterday," he said. "When you play Philip Rivers and you have the receivers that they have, Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, (Travis) Benjamin. I think everybody was targeted at some point in time. He did a good job spreading the ball around."

O'Brien was confident Joseph would clean up any mistakes that he shouldn't have made in the game.

"I think J-Jo he's been a great pro here for a long time. I think that he'll watch the tape and he'll know there are certain plays that he can improve on just like everybody."

Some of these plays, Keenan Allen makes on anyone. There are still times when Joseph gets a little too far off a wideout for it to be comfortable to watch. It will be interesting to see if defenses start attacking him earlier in the game because the Chargers seemingly found him later rather than earlier.

Joseph did pass Terrence Newman for third all-time in passes defended. He is 12 away from Ronde Barber and 18 away from the all-time leader Champ Bailey.

Lonnie Johnson played "decent" according to O'Brien. The head coach harped on Johnson's use of his hands downfield and how he needs to focus on cleaning that up in his game.

Second down success

My good friend Sean Pendergast did the leg work on something I was thinking about during the game.

The Texans under O'Brien have been historically conservative if first down doesn't go their way. Just two weeks ago they ran a draw play on 2nd and 11 in Saints territory when they were trailing by just three.

Against Jacksonville though they were more willing to throw, but possessed varying levels of success in doing so.

For Watson to have such an incredible day throwing on second downs when the yardage would be considered long, that's a great day for him and a testament to where the Texans feel they can go on offense. O'Brien finally has enough pieces, and protection, he can rely and trust his team to take these risks and make big plays.

"Running the ball was tough yesterday," O'Brien said.

He mentioned they run a unique rushing attack and with that they see a lot of exotic looks against them in trying to stop the run.

O'Brien said the defenses they saw yesterday had them adjusting their second and long gameplan to what we saw and praised the team for executing it well.

Will this offensive line start again this week?

I was very skeptical about the Texans starting offensive line. I was concerned with the lack of work those players had received at the positions they were playing on Sunday but both held up well.

O'Brien explained Monday each Max Scharping at left guard and Tytus Howard at right tackle worked at those positions in some fashion ahead of the week leading up to the Chargers. He mentioned their work up to this point had been affected, to some point, by injury. He also said adding Laremy Tunsil took any need for Tytus Howard's left tackle work to continue.

As for going forward, barring injury, it seems.

"Max (Scharping) played pretty well. Tytus (Howard) played pretty well at the right tackle spot. This is the way we're going to go right now I think these guys are gelling pretty well together."

What will the Kyle Allen show look like in his second start of 2019?

Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen looked every bit the part of starter as he diced up the Arizona Cardinals yesterday to the tune of four touchdowns on 19/26 passing totaling 261 yards. That, however, is the paltry and poorly coached Cardinals defense. They were atrocious in trying to stop Allen.

Allen was benched at Texas A&M and after transferring and becoming the starter in Houston he was benched again. He went undrafted before signing with the Panthers. He played well in one start last season before leaving with an injury. Then, suiting up for Newton Sunday, had the above mentioned performance.

Though not a rookie, he has a rookie-like setup to his career so far. He has played very little. Historically Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel has blasted first-time starters. Gardner Minshew had some success in week two late against the Texans but even then the Jaguars only scored 12 points.

I bet that sack felt as good as almost any sack in J.J. Watt's career

J.J. Watt split two sacks and had one of his own for a two-sack performance on the day. It was the 30th time in 107 career regular season games Watt had at least a sack. That's almost 30 percent of his career.

Watt had not shown up on the stat sheet a ton through the first two weeks. In fact, last week I mentioned it was statistically the worst two-game stretch of his career. Well, he got going plenty on Sunday and for the Texans sake, I hope he keeps it going.

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The Astros are back in action Friday night against the A's. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images.

The Astros need to whip up on the Oakland A’s this weekend in California as they did in sweeping four from them last week at Minute Maid Park. That was the start of a homestand which ended up with seven wins in 10 games. That goes down as a successful homestand, especially since it felt like the Astros’ prior winning homestand came while Donald Trump was President (it actually started in late July). Still, 7-3 doesn’t feel like a smashing success with it ending by dropping two of three games to the lowly Los Angeles Angels.

It is not exactly with bated breath that anyone should be waiting on Jose Abreu’s return to the lineup, but it’s coming. It should not be on this road trip. After the three games with the A’s the Astros move up the coast for a big four game set with American League West leading Seattle. The M's start all right-handed pitchers. That is no time to sit Jon Singleton to see if Abreu has managed to pump a few drops of gas into his tank while spending the better part of this month at the Astros’ minor league complex. It’s not as if Singleton has been stellar since Abreu’s departure, but by comparison, he’s been Lou Gehrig-esque. The series with the Mariners isn’t make or break but the Astros are strongly advised to get at least a split. That it should be Framber Valdez starting the opener Monday night doesn’t breed tremendous confidence, coming off his meltdown outing against the Angels. Another start, another opportunity.

The Mariners are at the Nationals this weekend, starting it a mere four and a half games ahead of the Astros. In four of the five other divisions the Astros' 22-28 record would have them at least 10 games off the lead.

One step forward, two steps back

Speaking of washed-up first basemen, Joey Votto should be a future Hall of Famer. The 40-year-old Canadian is trying to make it back to the big leagues via the minor leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays. Votto was an absolutely tremendous player with the Cincinnati Reds. As the Beastie Boys said, “Ch-check it out.” Over Jeff Bagwell’s first ten seasons with the Astros he hit .305 with a .417 on-base percentage and .552 slugging percentage, yielding a phenomenal .970 OPS. Over Votto’s first ten full seasons with the Reds: .313/.429/.540 for an exactly phenomenal .970 OPS. Where am I going with this? Read on!

Votto had phenomenal strike zone and bat control. He turned 30 during the 2013 season. That year Votto had 581 at bats. He popped out to an infielder once the entire season. Alex Bregman turned 30 the third day of this season. Bregman popped out to the shortstop four times in the Angels series. So much for Bregman’s “knob past the ball” epiphany that saw him hit three home runs over two games last week. Going into the weekend Bregman has one hit in his last 23 at bats. His season stats continue to be pitiful: a .209 batting average and .607 OPS. Bregman has only struck out once in the 23 at bats of his latest deep freeze. It’s that so much of his contract is feeble. There is a lot of season left for Bregman to build up to decent numbers, but one-third of the regular season will be complete after the Astros play the Mariners Monday night.

While Bregman’s season to date has basically been one long slump, Jose Altuve is in a funk of his own. Since blasting a homer Monday, Altuve is hitless in 12 at bats. Mini-slumps happen to everybody but Altuve’s woes trace back farther. Over his last 15 games, Altuve is batting .175. He last had more than one hit in a game May 5. He’s also drawn just two walks over those 15 games. It’s tough to ever sit Altuve, but he’s probably playing a little too much. Altuve turned 34 earlier this month. He has started 48 of the Astros 50 games at second base. Mauricio Dubon should be getting a start per week at second (and probably another at third given Bregman’s level of play). Over a full season not playing the field once per week still means 135 starts. Altuve should mix in some more at designated hitter (he has just one DH game so far this season). Wear and tear is a real thing, players don’t grow less susceptible to it as they get to their mid-30s.

King Tuck

On the flip side, Kyle Tucker! So far this season, he’s making himself as much money as Bregman is costing himself. Only Shohei Ohtani (1.069) starts the weekend action with an OPS higher than Tucker’s 1.060. The law of averages dictates that Tucker won’t finish as high as 1.060, but if he does, it would be the greatest full-length season offensive performance in Astros’ history. Jeff Bagwell posted an absurd 1.201 OPS in the strike-shortened 1994 campaign. Yordan Alvarez came in at 1.067 in his 87 games played rookie season of 2019. Lance Berkman’s 2001 was a monster. Enron Field was more hitter-friendly then than Minute Maid Park is now, but Berkman’s numbers were “Oh My Gosh!” spectacular. .331 batting average, 55 doubles (second in franchise history to Craig Biggio's 56 in 1999), 34 homers, .430 on-base percentage, .620 slugging percentage, and 1.051 OPS. And that was just Berkman’s second full season in the majors. Lance finished fifth in National League Most Valuable Player Award voting. Giant-headed Barry Bonds won MVP with his 73 home runs among other sicko stats.

* 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 The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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