3 areas Texans must improve heading into season

The Houston Texans had their first poor showing of the summer during their loss to the New Orleans Saints.

On Saturday night the Houston Texans traveled to New Orleans to take on the Saints in preseason game number three. However, in a game where their starters played a lot, they struggled.

Here are the major areas that the Texans really struggled in and should improve in time for their regular season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

First Downs

The Texans completed 13 first downs while the New Orleans Saints completed a total of  15 first downs.

The game was a stalemate after the first half. Houston’s offense has to establish drives in order to help their defense out.

Running the Football

With your a team that uses five running backs in a game, preseason or not, you would think that there would be a lot of rushing yards. That was not be the case. The Texans gained a total of 57 rushing yards while the Saints racked up a total of 111 yards.

Controlling the Football

In any game possession of the football is probably at the top of the list of priorities for the Texans or any other NFL team.

During Saturday night’s game the Texans only had the ball for a total of just over 28 minutes while the New Orleans Saints had it for over 31 minutes. They need to possess the ball more than their opponent.

It should be interesting to see how the Texans react to their struggling play and what  improvements they make.

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Whether it’s at home in Houston or on the road in Dallas, the Texans will face their final preseason test this coming Thursday night.