Even though there are multiple new faces across the entire group, the Houston Texans offensive line has spent the last season and a half hearing that as a unit, they were the achilles heel of this emerging AFC contender. Week after week, the Texans offensive line has gotten bullied by one opponent after another, all of whom emerged from their showdown as a more talented, better prepared and nastier unit than Houston's big fellas up front.
But that all changed this past Sunday afternoon, when Houston's offensive line went from being bullied to doing the bullying against the San Francisco 49ers, helping to pave the way to a 26-15 victory over the co-leaders of the NFC West. It was one hell of a bounceback performance considering how overmatched the unit looked just six days earlier against the Seattle Seahawks.
“We did a better job today,” tackle Tytus Howard said after the game, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 Houston. “We really just did what expected what expected of us. Each week, we gotta live up to that as as a group up front. I feel like we did a better job playing complementary football, keeping CJ clean, opening on lanes. We just gotta continue it each week. That’s an amazing feeling."
On 39 dropbacks, third-year quarterback CJ Stroud wasn't sacked once -- it was the first time Stroud hasn't been sacked in a game he started and finished since early in his rookie season -- and he was pressured on a season-low 21.4 percent of his attempts, per Next Gen Stats. The running game, which has been inconsistent throughout the season, had a banner day as well, with the entire group combining for 157 yards on 36 carries.
The entire Texans locker room offers praise for offensive line
It seems as though the offensive line's ability to impose their will on San Francisco galvanized the entire Texans locker room, because numerous individuals were quick to offer praise to this much-maligned group.
“They played great,” rookie wide receiver Jayden Higgins said. “They just went out there and bullied them.”
“Our offensive line did an outstanding job,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans added. “For us to stay upright the entire game when it wasn’t there, CJ made great decisions of stepping up in the pocket, taking what was given, taking what was there for him. So, proud of the way CJ played. Proud of the way the offensive line played. I know our offensive line can do it. When we do it and we do it at a high level and we’re focused, locked in, that’s what it looks like."
Perhaps nobody was more pleased with this result that CJ Stroud, who had his first career game with at least 300 passing yards and a completition percentage of at least 75% on Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t want to say perfect, but I would say we had a complete four quarters,” Stroud said. “I think that was the goal was to control the line of scrimmage, run the ball, then use play action pass and other things to kind of bounce it off. I thought we did a great job of that. But it really starts up front with the offensive line.”
Bullying the banged up San Francisco 49ers defensive line is a great place to start, but the challenge next week is a much steeper one. Into Houston will come the Denver Broncos, who lead the NFL in sacks (34) and QB pressures (125). To make matters worse, it's not just Nik Bonitto -- 4th in the league with 8 sacks this season -- that Houston will need to slow down. 15 different Broncos defenders have at least half a sack during the 2025 campaign.
"If each individual is locked in on what they’re supposed to do and not trying to do too much, it’s gonna be good," Tytus Howard added. “That’s the goal every week: to have a bully mentality, be able to get the ball going downhill and it’s only gonna open up the passing game for the offense. So, we just gotta apply what we did today and just try to stack on it, get better every week because we got a good team coming next week."