What was that last night from the Houston Texans?
Thursday Night Football turned into a Thursday Nightmare, as the Houston Texans played their worst game of the season in a 24-9 loss to the Sam Darnold-led Carolina Panthers. It was a short week coming off a tough gauntlet in the Cleveland Browns, in which the Texans lost Tyrod Taylor. A handful more injuries would make life harder going against the league’s best defense.
The way both coordinators (Tim Kelly and Lovie Smith) prepared their units is a discussion for another article itself. This is all about the numbers from the game, despite early on it not looking like there would be any numbers to talk about at all. There are four infuriating stats from last night’s loss, and with 10 days off the team will have plenty of time to correct going forward.
Houston Texans stats that made fans angry and annoyed
2:
The number of forced fumbles that the defense had on Sam Darnold. Both came in Panthers territory (or relatively close), and the Texans couldn’t recover. Not sure if it was the defensive line being moved out of their gaps, but those are momentum-swingers that have to be capitalized. It’s how this offense works (off of turnovers)
4:
Sacks allowed by the Houston Texans offensive line. Laremy Tunsil looked like he did on draft night- dazed and confused. It’s not like the Panthers have any solo threat of one player- they just work together really well and all of them benefit. Davis Mills had zero time last night for most of his pass attempts.
1:
There was only one converted third down, which came on a third and short. Other than that, countless penalties from the flag-happy refs last night (15 total penalties in the game) made every third-down attempt be way longer than it needed to be
0:
The number of extra points made by Kicker Joey Slye. Just when the Texans had broken through on a scoring drive right before half, Slye shanked the extra point and threw a wet blanket on top of the momentum the Texans offense worked so hard to achieve. We tried to warn you about Slye field goals when they matter. It’s time to move on from Slye.