The Houston Texans rebuild didn’t have many wins penciled in for the 2021 season, but their fourth game of the season on Sunday, a Week 4 loss to the Buffalo Bills was their worst, performance to date this season.
In the 40-0 loss at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo the Houston Texans played so poorly on offense it is tough to even write about what happened because of the old saying, “if you don’t have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it at all.”
That is the case for the Texans in Week 4 because their offense was just absolutely terrible, and played with no consistency, unless you want to say inconsistency, because the turnover filled offensive performance was nothing to write home about.
Houston has no choice but to learn something from this, and if nothing else realize they need to change something within their rushing game, and their passing game struggled once again too. Neither part of their offense – rushing or passing – will have any success if they can’t start having some success of their own.
Texans quarterback Davis Mills finished the loss 11-of-21 for 87 yards with zero touchdowns and four interceptions, two in each half. He was also sacked three times. In the rushing game, the Texans totaled 48 yards on 18 carries as a team, with Mark Ingram II leading the way with six carries for 24 yards, with one of those carries being 12 yards.
David Johnson had five carries for 21 yards rushing, and the receiving leader was Brandin Cooks with five receptions for 47 yards, which was his lowest total of the year. As a team on offense the Texans totaled 109 yards on 42 plays, with just six first downs.
Again … if we have nothing nice to say … we can let someone else say it. Houston Chronicle Texans/NFL reporter John McClain, who has covered the NFL and Houston football for 40-plus years, said it the best in the following tweet:
This continues to be the worst offensive performance I've seen. And I've seen a lot of games.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) October 3, 2021
Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com tweeted the following about the Houston Texans offense during the Week 4 loss:
The Texans are the second team in the last four seasons to complete one or fewer passes in the first half of a game.
— Sarah Barshop (@sarahbarshop) October 3, 2021
The Broncos did last season when all their quarterbacks were out due to COVID protocols. (@ESPNStatsInfo)
If there ever was a way to describe “growing pains” during the first year of a long rebuild it is this poor offensive performance by the Texans. This offense did their defense wrong this game, because that unit held Josh Allen and company to four field goals and didn’t give up as many touchdowns as they could have.
Besides the two first half interceptions, there was the Jordan Akins fumble that led to Buffalo points, and basically many turnovers made by the Texans’ offense led to either a field goal by Buffalo’s Tyler Bass or a touchdown by the home team Bills.
Houston Texans: Week 4 was bad offensively … really bad
On Twitter there was a call for the Texans to play Jeff Driskel at quarterback to replace Mills, but to be honest, there is only one quarterback in the Texans organization that would have made a difference in this game, and he’s not playing on this team anytime soon, and most likely ever again.
After a game like this, and maybe other then the Urban Meyer coached Jacksonville Jaguars, is there a worse team in the entire NFL after four games? The way the Texans played in Week 4 they should take a long look in the mirror and think about was that a professional performance all-around? They should know the answer to that question.
The Houston Texans must realize even being in a long-term rebuild, the effort on offense wasn’t up to par, even compared to team that is equal to or worse than them the standings. The only positive from this loss is things can hopefully learn from this worst performance of the season, and build onto the next game.