HOW IT HAPPENED

Welcome to Film Room, where we’ll break down significant portions from the Texans’ last football game. Have a seat. Set the phone aside. Let’s dive in.

NO RUN GAME, NO OFFENSE:

When Tyrod Taylor was sidelined to the injured reserve with a hamstring injury suffered against the Browns, it became all the more imperative for the Texans’ run game to be effective Thursday night against the Panthers to support rookie quarterback Davis Mills in his first career start.

Instead, the Texans' running backs combined for just 37 yards in an overall inept performance against the NFL’s top-ranked defense in a 24-9 loss. This pretty much doomed any chance at an upset. There were stuffed runs and minimal gains on early downs. This created more blatant passing situations in which the Panthers could attack a shaky Texans pass protection at will. Mills was sacked four times. The Texans went 1-for-9 on third downs and recorded just 14 first downs to Carolina’s 28.

“We just did not run the ball as well as we needed to run the ball because of the mistakes we made,” coach David Culley said. “Obviously, that had a lot to do with the inconsistency of what we were doing offensively and not being able to do what we would’ve liked to have done with (Mills) in the passing game because a lot of our passing games comes off what we do in our running game, and we weren’t very good at doing that yesterday.”

A troubling pattern of inefficiency in the run game spells immediate trouble for a Texans team that, under Culley, made the running game a foundational piece of the offensive philosophy this season. Taylor will be on the IR until at least Oct. 12, which means Mills must start against the Bills and the Patriots — teams with rushing defenses that both rank within the top 14 in the league.

So, what went wrong against the Panthers?

It’s best to start by highlighting a key problem: Even with all the creativity in Houston’s last two games, the cycled personnel groupings, the Taylor runs, all the things highlighted in film studies here, the Texans were still only averaging 3.5 yards per carry going into the Panthers game. Take out Taylor, and running backs were averaging even fewer (3.03).

It stood to reason that the Texans

would struggle even more against what is proving to be one of the NFL’s best defenses. Indeed, on nearly every play, a Texans running back was met by a defender by the time he reached the line of scrimmage.

Houston’s offensive line was particularly dominated by defensive tackle Derrick Brown, Carolina’s No. 7 overall pick in 2020 and a former Southeastern Conference

Defensive Player of the Year. Brown epitomized Houston’s collective failure to create running lanes on Thursday night.

Brown broke through consecutive double-teams on Houston’s second offensive drive. One by left tackle Laremy Tunsil and left guard Tytus Howard. The next by right guard Max Scharping and right tackle Marcus Cannon. Ingram gained 12 of his 21 total rushing yards on

both plays by purely lowering his shoulder and forcing through clogged piles at the line.

Then, on Houston’s third drive, Brown busted into the backfield to disrupt three consecutive runs. Brown split Howard and Tunsil twice on back-to-back runs that blocked the way on a four-yard gain by Ingram, then a two-yard gain by Phillip Lindsay.

Then, on first and 10 at the Texans’ 16 (sequence below), Brown (circled) swept past Howard on an inside run by Lindsay and dropped Lindsay for a 1-yard loss.

The Texans still committed to running the ball on early downs, and offensive coordinator Tim Kelly even deployed extra offensive linemen twice within unbalanced personnel groupings to try and manufacture some kind of run game on first down.

Three plays after Lindsay’s one-yard loss, backup right tackle Charlie Heck subbed into the game as an extra blocker on first and 10 at the Texans' 35. This made it inherently more predictable that Houston would be running the ball, and Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn crept up to the line and shot right through the running lane and limited Lindsay to a 1-yard gain.

The same problem emerged in the second half, although in a slightly different way, when the Texans deployed reserve lineman Justin McCray to provide extra blocking out of the backfield on first-and-10 at the Houston 27 (sequence below).

McCray (circled) lined up next to blocking tight end Anthony Auclair (circled) as dual H-backs, and, together, they were lead blockers for Lindsay toward the left side. Yes, the main running lane was still clogged. An issue. But while six Panthers defenders followed the expected flow of the play, a void emerged on the right side (dashed arrow). Lindsay instead continued to plow ahead (arrow) for a gain of 3 yards.

Lindsay was caught on two other second-half runs in which he unsuccessfully opted to peel to the outside edge in an attempt to bend around Carolina defenders along the sideline. On first and 10 at the Carolina 45 (sequence pictured below), a hole parted on the left side between tight end Pharaoh Brown and Tunsil. Lindsay makes it through, then, when facing Panthers corner Jaycee Horn, Lindsay elects to bend toward the sideline (top arrow) instead of cutting upfield bottom arrow) for additional yardage. Horn tackled Lindsay for a gain of a yard, creating a long second and 9.

The combined factors that produced an inefficient Texans run game created a considerable boost in the total number of long second-down situations. Short runs, penalties and incomplete passes produced 11 instances in which the Texans faced second down with 9 or more yards to go, more than the totals for such situations in their two previous games.