Houston Texans: J.J. Watt shouldn’t take blame in loss to Panthers

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt played a great game, but in postgame comments he placed the loss on himself.

The Houston Texans defense gave their offense many chances to score points and win the game with their overall play on Sunday, but it was defensive end J.J. Watt placing the blame on himself for the one play he didn’t make.

Watt shouldn’t be taking the blame because of how Carolina Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen made a very athletic play, ducking at the perfect moment and escaping the pressure of Watt in the final stage of the fourth quarter.

Watt, being the leader that he is, said the following in comments of the postgame press conference provided by the Houston Texans media department:

"“I take that one all on me. If I make that play at the end, probably out of field goal range, probably we get the ball back with some time left. So, I put that 100% on me. I have to make that play. He made a great play. So, I take that.”"

Yes, the missed sack hurt the Texans, but Watt shouldn’t be taking the blame for the loss. In fact, none of the pass rushers for the Texans should be placing any of the blame on themselves because Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Benardrick McKinney each had a strip sack, as they caused a fumble on the sack.

Watt finished the game with the aforementioned forced fumble and sack, plus he recovered a fumble and totaled six sacks (three solo). For the game Watt played, he did his job,and for the second straight week he really stood out on defense.

This season, Watt has collected 13 tackles, three sacks and one forced fumble. For the game, the Texans kept the Carolina offense to under 300 total yards with the Panthers having 297 yards in the Week 4 game.

The issue was the offense of the Texans not taking advantage of all of the turnovers forced by the defense. Watt and the pass rush of the Texans did more than enough for the team to gain the win, especially the past NFL Defensive Player of the Year.