Hopkins remains key no matter the QB
Wide receiver under pressure to come through in prime time
The Texans desperately need wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to have one of the best performances of his career Thursday when they play at Cincinnati in prime time.
Hopkins had seven catches for 55 yards and a touchdown in the Texans’ 29-7 loss to Jacksonville. In a nationally televised game in which rookie Deshaun Watson is expected to start at quarterback, Hopkins needs to have a huge impact because they can’t afford an 0-2 start with the next game at New England.
The Texans’ offense is struggling because of injuries, ineptitude and issues at quarterback and in the offensive line — not to mention tight end being decimated by concussions.
Always there
Hopkins should be the one player they can count on. He’s never missed a game. He’s played with injuries. Now he has to get open under difficult circumstances. Expect the Bengals to have double coverage on almost every pass play.
Both teams are coming off humiliating performances in which their offenses were horrendous. Hopkins scored the Texans’ only touchdown on a 4-yard pass from Watson. The Bengals didn’t even score in their 20-0 home loss to Baltimore.
Hopkins, who signed an $81 million contract that included $39 million guaranteed, is under a lot of pressure to produce, no matter what the Bengals try to do against him.
Receivers Will Fuller (collarbone) and Bruce Ellington (concussion) aren’t playing. Tight ends C.J. Fiedorowicz, Ryan Griffin and Stephen Anderson are sidelined because of concussions.
Receiver Jaelen Strong returns from his one-game suspension. Receiver Braxton Miller is healthy again but didn’t catch a pass against Jacksonville.
That means Hopkins is going to get the heavyduty work in the passing game even more than he normally does.
“Hopkins will be targeted several times in every game we play this year,” coach Bill O’ Brien said after practice Tuesday. “Regardless of who’s out there — one tight end, four tight ends, no tight ends — the ball will be thrown in his direction quite a bit. I think everybody knows that.”
O’Brien calls the plays.
“He was targeted 16 times (against Jacksonville), and I really wish I had targeted him 20 times,” O’Brien said.
It would benefit Hopkins and the passing game for the Texans to run the ball more productively than they did against Jacksonville. They had 93 yards on 23 carries.
They have to establish the running game early, and they have to use rookie D’Onta Foreman more than Sunday, when he carried one time for 4 yards.
So much depends on the offensive line. Don’t expect another miserable performance like the Texans had against the Jaguars, who recorded 10 sacks.
If the Texans can run consistently, it’ll set up the play-action, and that’s when Hopkins needs to step up and ignite the offense with some electrifying receptions.
For Hopkins to provide a spark to the offense, the Texans have to develop a passing game that starts with improved pass protection. No more getting flattened by pass rushers attacking like heat-seeking missiles.
Needs to be on move
To get Hopkins the ball, the coaches have to put him in position to make plays the way the Texans used to set up Andre Johnson.
Johnson used to line up wide, in the slot and in the backfield before going in motion. When the ball was snapped, he was often already on the move to get off the line of scrimmage in a flash. The Texans need to utilize Hopkins in similar fashion.
When the ball’s in the air, Hopkins has to attack it with gusto. When the pass isn’t right on target, he has to use those flypaper hands to make the catch, even if it’s a onehanded reception.
Protection is paramount, of course. Give a quarterback time to throw in Hopkins’ vicinity, and he’s got to be a differencemaker in a game that has a lot of early-season significance for both teams trying to rebound from early-season embarrassments.