Houston Texans can’t score points in third quarter so far in 2020

The Houston Texans offense is stale and predictable once again this season.

The Houston Texans lost their Week 3 game by a 28-21 score to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the part that is worse than the loss is how the Texans lost the game. The Texans are not only 0-3 to start the year, but in the loss to Pittsburgh they were held scoreless in the second half.

The offense of the Houston Texans, once again, put the defense of the team on the field way too much, and not only that, when the Texans were on the field the offense lacked creativity, and for that matter, the play of the entire unit needs to improve.

This season in three games played the Houston Texans have scored 14 points combined in the first quarter, 24 points in the second and 19 points in the fourth quarter. The glaring point total is the Texans in the third quarter this season. When coming out of the halftime break, the Texans have an astounding zero points combined in the third frame through the first the games.

C’mon now, how does this happen to a professional football team. There are no excuses for this club that they can’t score points in the third quarter during any of the three games players thus far. Yes, the combined record of the three teams they have faced this season are a combined 7-0 (KC and Baltimore play each other on Monday night), but seriously, not a single point with new play caller Tim Kelly?

The Houston Texans have been outscored 10-0 in the third quarter this season, but the issue for Houston on Sunday in Pittsburgh was the fact they didn’t score any points in the fourth quarter either. The Texans played a nice first half where they led by a 21-17 score at halftime, but this is about the second half, and well, there needs to be some lessons learned from those two quarters.

Houston Texans: The play calling wasn’t exciting or productive in the 2nd half

The offense of the Houston Texans had the ball for four possessions in the final two quarters and never had any of those four drives last longer than four minutes. They had possession times of 2:16, 2:24, 3:32 and 1:37, receiving the ball twice by kickoff and twice by punt.

Yards gained in the second half possession included 6, -2, 42, and 5, and after penalties, the second half net total of yards was 41 yards. Also with those four possessions, they ended with three punts and an interception.

The third-quarter rushing game saw David Johnson have four carries combined on two drives, resulting in two runs towards the right tackle, one run to the right guard and one run to the left guard. The Houston Texans just gave up on the running attack in the fourth quarter, as it was evident things weren’t working with the way they were calling the game.

In the time of possession department in the second half, the Houston Texans had the ball for 6:39 in the third and 3:10 in the fourth, as they were a combined 1-for-5 in converting third downs.

For the four quarters played, David Johnson led the Texans with 13 carries for 23 yards and one touchdown, averaging 1.8 yards per carry, with a best rush of five yards.

If this offensive performance during the second half wasn’t a wake-up call to head coach Bill O’Brien, offensive coordinator Tim Kelly and the players themselves that something has to change, well, nothing will wake them up.

The second-half performance should ring as loud as 10 alarms going off at the same time, because if it is seen by the fans that this offense isn’t working for four complete quarters, imagine what their Week 4 opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, will see when preparing for the Houston Texans this week.