Houston Texans weaknesses were amplified in the playoffs

The Houston Texans struggles were evident in the loss to the Indianapolis Colts at home in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.

The Houston Texans lost in a disappointing fashion against the Indianapolis Colts. The 14 points the Colts scored in the first quarter proved to be too much to overcome from a momentum standpoint. The team fell into desperation mode as they were attempting to stay afloat as the boat began to overflow with water. Texans ended up losing 21-7.

The Texans secondary had been a concern this entire season as they entered with Johnathan Joseph, Kevin Johnson, Aaron Colvin, Natrell Jamerson, and Kayvon Webster. Johnson and Webster came into this season with past injury concerns meanwhile Joseph has been one of the most consistent cornerbacks the defense has had in the past few seasons but the wear and tear would catch up to him in his 13th season in the NFL.

The secondary has no defensive back with the speed to maintain with Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton and Andrew Luck made sure to take advantage of the speed mismatch. Injuries forced the Texans to change the personnel in the secondary, they placed Johnson and Webster on IR and waived Jamerson so they could add Shareece Wright and Deante Burton. The Texans were playing with fire throughout the regular season and they got burned in the playoffs.

Texans defensive coordinator, Romeo Crennel was unable to use the personnel they had to their strengths, Kareem Jackson was moved from safety to cornerback and he wasn’t able to replicate the success he had early in the season. Colvin fell out of the rotation after his ankle injury and the coaching staff decided that Burton and Wright merited to be active and see snaps over him towards the end of the season.

Cornerback was a position of need early on the season and it wasn’t addressed properly. The front seven also shared the blame for being undisciplined and allowing the Colts to rush the football for 200 yards. The defense as a unit was unable to get off the field on key third downs due to poor play and self-inflicted penalties.

Wright had struggled with defending opposing receivers and he was exposed yet again with a double move in the playoff game for a touchdown. To the defense credit, they didn’t allow the Colts to score in the second half, but the damage had already been done. The Texans were in a tough predicament down three touchdowns and a sputtering offense integrating a lot of new receivers into their system. The front office will have a busy offseason with several starters on defense hitting the market as unrestricted free agents.