Houston Texans: 3 Surprises at bye week

2. The improvement of the offensive line

Early on in the 2019 season, the offensive line wasn’t showing much improvement, as they and Deshaun Watson weren’t on the same page, and that was affecting the Texans as an entire unit.

This season Watson has been sacked 25 times, but 18 of those sacks came in the first four weeks of the season. Since then, in the past five games that number has dropped to seven sacks, and for this unit, compared to the past, that isn’t that much of a drop.

The Texans this past Sunday allowed just one sack against the Jaguars, compared to Week 2 when they allowed four against the same team.

Some of the improvement has been because the Texans have made changes to the personnel, and this past Sunday Laremy Tunsil didn’t play due to an injury and there was only one sack allowed.

Having Tytus Howard at right tackle has made a huge difference as of late, as his presence is a game changer, and he’s starting to play up to his first-round draft status.

Pro Football Focus has Howard with just three penalties and with only one sack allowed this season, as the rookie from Alabama State has played in 370 snaps thus far in 2019.

The quickness that Howard has improved as a rookie for the Texans o-line hasn’t been lost, and it is surprising (at least to me) that he’s played so well and made a difference to this team in the six games he’s played this season.

The best is yet to come from Howard, and it should be exciting to see more improvement from him following the bye week.