The Houston Texans are looking for their second straight win after an 0-3 start to the season, and against the shorthanded Baltimore Ravens, they're off to a promising start. Houston leads 24-3 at the halftime break, and there's one stat in particular that shows just how lopsided this game has been thus far.
Texans quarterback CJ Stroud, who is not known for his rushing skills and has acknowledged he's already lost a step athletically, had a 30 yard scramble in the 2nd quarter that set Houston up in a goal-to-go situation that ended with a touchdown pass to Pro Bowl wideout Nico Collins.
The touchdown from Stroud to Collins -- their third touchdown connection of the young season -- is nice, as is the fact that Stroud has three passing touchdowns total in the 1st half, two of which went to Xavier Hutchinson. But the stat of note here is that with just one run, Stroud managed to outgain Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry on the ground in the 1st half.
It's not just that Derrick Henry, who carried the ball six times in the 1st half, is being outrushed by CJ Stroud through the first two quarters of action today. It's that Henry (8 yards) is presently the 5th-leading rusher in the game, trailing Nick Chubb (33 yards), Stroud (30 yards), Woody Marks (19 yards), and British Brooks (9 yards).
Henry's usage over the last few weeks has been a major point of conversation in Baltimore, and his lack of an impact so far in Week 5 will only add fuel to that fire. But in fairness to Henry, without Lamar Jackson in the lineup, Baltimore's offense figured to be fairly one-dimensional this afternoon, and as a result, the Texans ran 14 more offensive plays than the Ravens in the 1st half, and the Ravens were outgained by over 100 yards.