Houston Texans: Crennel says team should ‘refresh’ during bye week

The Houston Texans have had a stressful first seven weeks to the season, now they need to “refresh.”

The 2020 season of the Houston Texans has been just about as enjoyable as a visit to the dentist office, meaning there has been some pain involved with the way this team has played when on the field as a whole.

Houston is 1-6 overall, but now with a bye in Week 8 this is the perfect opportunity for the coaches, players, and fans to take a deep breath, and as interim head coach Romeo Crennel said following Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, it is time to “refresh.”

At times on game day the Houston Texans look like they are an offense that can cause issues for opponents, and there a few moments on defense where one could think maybe that is the play which can change things. That’s not been the case by a wide margin in 2020, because the offensive play calling still stinks when it comes to using the rushing game, and on defense, teams have their way with the secondary.

Losing Bradley Roby on Sunday made a difference against the Packers, causing Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams to take advantage of the Texans’ misfortune in the secondary.

All of that is finished now, the record is what it is, and Houston has an interim head coach in Crennel who knows his team needed this bye week in the worst way. Crennel said the following following the Week 7 loss going into the bye week:

"“We’re an inconsistent team, and we showed that today. What we have to do is we have to try to refresh our minds, refresh our bodies during the bye week and then come back and practice, work together, pull together to be a more consistent team going down the stretch.”"

Crennel continued to talk about his team and how inconsistent the Texans were in the loss on Sunday:

"“And, you know, we’ve got some ability when we give the quarterback time. He can make some plays. Defensively, we’re inconsistent, but we did do better against the run overall today, but then we got killed in the passing game. So that’s a sign of inconsistency.”"

To be nice, sure we’ll say the defense is “inconsistent” because that has been the case nearly all season, and whenever the offense does have a good game it has been erased because of the overall play of the defense. Rarely, have the offense and defense been on the same page of success during a game this season.

Houston Texans: No bye week blues for Week 8 as break was needed

So yes, this bye week has come at the perfect time after back-to-back losses to the Tennessee Titans in overtime, followed with the Sunday loss to Green Bay. The Texans are also 1-2 since firing Bill O’Brien as the head coach and general manager, with the win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Defeating the Jaguars isn’t much to brag about because everyone — except the Colts — have defeated Jacksonville this season, as they are just as “inconsistent” as the Texans in 2020. Now back to this bye week, the Texans needed it in the worst way, especially Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt.

The two faces of the Houston Texans have been seen following games with looks of frustration on their faces, and it is tough not to blame them because they both are too good of players to be on a team that has one win in seven chances.

Opponents can put extra focus on Watt because of how poor the defense is, and Watson doesn’t have the best offensive line in front of him, and the chemistry doesn’t seem to be the same on offense as it was last season, either … wonder what has changed?

So again, Crennel is correct in his assessment that this team needs to refresh during the bye week. The Houston Texans also need to take a long look in the mirror as a franchise and make some more tough decisions that might not help this season, but could be best for the overall future for this franchise.

Until then, everyone needs to refresh, enjoy the bye week, and prepare for Week’s 9-17 because there is a lot that can happen between now and then end of the season, but how fun that will be is the big question.