BLOCKED OUT
Texan's offensive line is one of the major reasons the team has started 0-3
INDIANAPOLIS — It was one of the more troubling moments involving the Texans’ patchwork offensive line during a young season gone awry.
When the line jogged up to the line of scrimmage a week ago, they had the New York Giants’ defense outnumbered.
The Giants had committed what should have been a cardinal mistake. They only had 10 men on the field and were missing a defensive tackle on the left side.
The Texans had four blockers on an overloaded right side with tackle Julie’n Davenport and guard Zach Fulton basically uncovered.
Instead of punching the football into the end zone on first down from the Giants’ 5-yard line, Davenport and Fulton looked a bit confused by the alignment and running back Lamar Miller didn’t read the hole properly. He gained 3 yards.
On the next play, Miller was thrown for a 3-yard loss while trying to run behind rookie left tackle Martinas Rankin. The Texans wound up settling for a field goal on their opening drive in what turned into a 27-22 loss.
“That was definitely frustrating,” Davenport said. “We’ve got to take advantage of things like that and punch it in the end zone. We’ve got to be better. Our No. 1 motivation is to come in and grind and have an aggressive mindset. There’s nothing more to say.”
‘Need to do our jobs better’
The Texans’ offensive line is a mess right now, and one of the major reasons why the team is 0-3 heading into Sunday’s AFC South game at Indianapolis.
The line already has allowed quarterback Deshaun Watson, coming off a torn anterior cruciate ligament, to be sacked 10 times and hit 32 times overall.
The Texans are on pace to give up 53 sacks and 170 quarterback hits for the season after allowing 54 sacks last season. The Texans rank last in the NFL in pressure percentage, allowing pressures on 41.1 percent of Watson’s dropbacks.
“Definitely as offensive linemen, we take offense to that,” Fulton said. “We need to do our jobs better.”
The Texans have the fifth-worst red-zone offense in the NFL, a 36.4 percent success rate, with the linemen frequently committing penalties and allowing sacks.
The Texans don’t have a Pro Bowl offensive linemen on the roster. They traded away their last player to achieve that status a year ago when they sent disgruntled left tackle Duane Brown to Seattle in the wake of a contract dispute.
Their highest draft pick is center Nick Martin, a former secondround selection from Notre Dame who has performed solidly since coming back from ankle surgery.
The most expensive lineman is Fulton, a former Kansas City Chiefs starter signed to a fouryear, $28 million contract in March. Fulton has graded out fairly well.
Left guard Senio Kelemete hasn’t committed many mistakes, but he is undersized and missed the last game with a knee injury and was replaced by backup Greg Mancz.
Martinas Rankin is a thirdround draft pick from Mississippi State who missed the majority of the offseason after undergoing foot surgery and has struggled in pass protection.
When former Buffalo Bills right tackle Seantrel Henderson broke his ankle in the Texans’ opener against the New England Patriots, it took away the biggest offensive lineman on the roster and one of the few experienced blockers.
The loss of Henderson triggered a line shuffle that hasn’t worked out so far.
Davenport, a second-year player, shifted to the right side where he has become a magnet for penalties and pressures allowed. He leads the Texans with eight penalties.
Henderson’s loss creates void
The offensive line is a position that was neglected during the tenure of former general manager Rick Smith. It’s an area that new GM Brian Gaine is trying to address in a hurry, but it’s extremely difficult to fix this big of a problem in one year.
“This is obviously not a good offensive line,” said an NFL scouting director not authorized to speak publicly. “I mean, they don’t have any high draft picks on their line except for Martin, who’s pretty darn good. Fulton is tough. I don’t know if Davenport has the feet or the confidence to be a reliable starter, but he’s really young and he’s huge.
“I liked Rankin coming out of the draft, but he’s having a lot of problems handling speed rushers. It’s just not a good group right now. If Watson wasn’t so fast and good at getting out of harm’s way, this would be a total disaster. They’ve got to coach these guys up and hope that they improve in a hurry.”
Against the Giants, Davenport was penalized five times with one of them offset by the Giants. He also allowed five quarterback pressures and one sack.
“We’ve got do whatever we can to keep him upright,” Davenport said. “It’s our job.”
When the Texans placed Henderson on injured reserve, it weakened two positions because Davenport was just starting to look acceptable at left tackle.
“Look, any time you get injuries that’s a bad deal, but everybody deals with injuries in this league,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “Everybody in the league says, ‘Next man up.’ Losing Seantrel, especially the second series of the opening game, that was a tough deal, but the next guy needs to step up and continue — whoever that guy is — and has to play well.”
As uncomfortable as Davenport looks in pass protection while kick-stepping to his right and as prone as he is to penalties, Rankin is having plenty of issues of his own.
Against the Giants, Rankin allowed a team-high eight quarterback pressures. He has been particularly vulnerable to bull rushes and swim moves in his first two NFL starts.
“That’s my No. 1 goal is to protect Deshaun,” Rankin said. “I feel like if I give up pressures, I let him down and I never want to let him down. … We have to learn from our mistakes.”
Watson is getting hit way too frequently. The constant pressure is throwing off the timing of the offense.
Chipping in to help
Even though the Texans use chip-blocking assistance to help out the line on roughly 35 percent of their passing attempts, Watson is still under constant duress.
“It’s not really what a quarterback wants to do, but if I have to do it to make the offensive linemen right and try to make a play, then that’s what I have to do,” Watson said. “”I always tell the Oline, just do your job and I’m going to make you right if something happens.”
There’s no clear relief in sight unless Gaine pulls a curveball and trades for a starting lineman.
They could consider moving Davenport back to left tackle, shifting Rankin to right tackle, which they have been resistant to doing, or bench Davenport or Rankin and insert former starter Kendall Lamm.
There are no easy answers for what the Texans’ offensive line is facing.
“We just have to block out the noise,” Fulton said. “We’re the only ones who can control what we do. I just tell the guys to control what you can control and that it comes down to doing your job.”
What can the Texans do to engineer a turnaround? That’s difficult to say.
“There’s no magic wand, no magic dust, there’s nothing I could sprinkle over it,” O’Brien said. “Everybody’s just got to work hard to get a lot better.”