Houston Texans suffer last-second loss to Patriots in Week 5

The Houston Texans played improved football at quarterback in Week 5, and that showed in their overall numbers with much better individual stats and team points scored. That said, the problem was the defense of the Texans in the second half where the Patriots used a late field goal to win 25-22.

New England outscored the Houston Texans, 16-7 in the second half which led to their win at NRG Stadium.

Houston – who now stands at 1-4 overall on the season – allowed the Patriots to drive downfield on their final offensive drive in the fourth quarter, and on fourth-and-goal it was a 21-yard field goal by Nick Folk with 15 seconds left in regulation that sealed the win for the visitors.

Even with this loss, though the defense couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with New England in the second half – the Texans led 15-9 at halftime – the offense of the Houston Texans played much better than they have the past few weeks of the ’21 season.

One positive was the overall play of Texans rookie quarterback Davis Mills who played much improved over his poor play from last week. Mills finished 21-of-29 for 311 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions. That’s much better than last week when Mills threw for 87 yards and four interceptions with no touchdowns.

Mills found Antony Auclair, Chris Moore, and Chris Conley for touchdown receptions with Auclair having an 11-yard score, while Moore’s touchdown went for 67 yards and Conley had a 37-yard touchdown catch.

Even the running game for the Texans was a little better, well at least for Mark Ingram II who rushed for 41 yards on 16 carries, with his best run going for eight yards. It still isn’t great, but it worked well enough for the passing game to come to life for Mills and his receivers.

With all the touchdown passes by Mills, the leading receiver was Moore with five receptions on five targets for 109 yards, with the wide receiver averaging 21.8 yards per catch. Conley finished with three receptions for 84 yards, averaging 28 yards per catch.

Houston Texans: Defensive play was up-and-down in Week 5

The tackles leader for the Houston Texans was Christian Kirksey, who totaled 12 tackles, with six of those being solo tackles, and he also had one pass defensed. Jonathan Greenard had one sack for the Texans, and Lonnie Johnson Jr. had the lone interception of the game made by either team.

Though this was the fourth consecutive loss by the Texans, the play was better than it was in Week 4 for the offense, but it seemed like the defense took a step back at times in this loss.

With this being a season to see where players stand, when it comes to the rookie quarterback Mills he earned a chance to start again next week to see if the offense can build on this performance. It was good seeing the third round pick have his success with 300-plus passing yards.

Again, it wasn’t a win, and there are no moral victories in the NFL, but the play was better than it was a week ago on offense, and that’s something to build off of moving into Week 6.