Sep 13, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans running back Alfred Blue (28) and tackle Duane Brown (76) on the ground after a play during the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs at NRG Stadium. The Chiefs defeated the Texans 27-20. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
The most important thing for Houston is this team needs to find their identity, and they need to do it quickly. For years the Houston Texans have been a team that wins in the trenches and wears teams down with their run game and tough defense.
Against Carolina though, Houston threw the ball 58 times with newly appointed quarterback Ryan Mallett. Conversely they had only 23 rushing attempts while at times seemed to have abandoned the run all together.
With middle linebacker Luke Kuechly and defensice tackle Star Lotulelei out for the Panthers, the Texans seemed to have the perfect setup to get their running game on track.
Instead they saw one of this year’s biggest disappointments, running back Alfred Blue get six yards on five carries. Back up Jonathan Grimes wasn’t much better as he had two rushes for seven yards. The top back in the game was Chris Polk, who had 38 yards on 14 carries, which is nothing to be too excited about.
Grimes did help the team some on receiving as he managed 40 yards on six catches, compared to one catch for Blue and two for Polk, theirs all going for minimal gains.
Unfortunately though, Grimes catches seemed to be on a lot of check downs and took away from going to the real playmakers, their receivers.
If injured running back Arian Foster doesn’t come back soon, the run game may have to go out the window all together. If that is the case, the team needs to open up the offense and let players like DeAndre Hopkins loose.
The team didn’t get him deep enough and if they do need to be a pass first team, that has to change. One thing is for sure, come the offseason, the team needs to do something about this running back situation. Alfred Blue has proven so far that he cannot be trusted in the absence of Foster.
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