An ending in the end zone
Forget the 2-point try; inability to stop Henry was the real issue
Texans cornerback Bradley Roby walks off the field as the Tennessee Titans celebrate running back Derrick Henry’s game-winning touchdown run in overtime Sunday, putting the Texans at 1-5 this season.
The Texans are 1-1 since … well, you know.
Let’s not even use his name anymore.
He who shouldn’t be named isn’t part of the team and no longer is responsible for wins or losses.
Well, maybe some losses, but as for the wins, wherefore art thou Romeo?
(Oh, didn’t you know, Texans head coach Romeo Crennel was named after the young Montague from Shakespeare’s play? He has a sister named Juliet.)
Butwho is to blame for Sunday’s loss?
The old coach, or the new one?
Both.
This one is on the Texans’ horrendous defense. One that was built by the other guy and used to be run by Crennel.
That partnership has produced a unit that has already cost the Texans wins, and is likely to do so all season.
Crennel’s Texans rebounded from a couple of two-touchdown deficits, attacked hardcore when it was obvious the planned approach wasn’t working, and took the side of a
coin flip to win the game instead of the side that would keep the Titans alive.
In the end, the Texans fell 42-36 to the Titans in overtime because they couldn’t stop Derrick Henry.
Houston entered the game having allowed more rushing yards than any team in the league. That certainly didn’t change Sunday, as Henry barreled his way through, over and around Texans defenders like a man among boys.
The Texans should have filed a postgame protest with a demand to see Henry’s birth certificate, because he is too big to be playing with these children.
The inability to slow Henry, who finished with 212 rushing yards on 22 carries plus 52 more yards on two pass receptions, was what did the Texans in.
Crennel’s much-discussed 2-point conversion gamble was secondary.
Old-school Romeo, as in having celebrated 73 birthdays, didn’t play it safe. He wasn’t conservative. He tried to win the game with 1:50 left by going for a 2-point conversion after the
Texans took a seven-point lead. What’s the right call?
The math, as multiple analytics sites presented in the aftermath, says the decision presented, at most, a 1 percent difference in the likelihood of winning the game.
We’re talking heads or tails. “That’s the nature of this game that we’re in,” Crennel said. “When you win, when you’re successful, everybody feels good
about it. When you lose, you’re not successful on a play, then everybody feels bad about it.”
Crennel chose not to hide his head between his tail, and he went for the clincher.
DeShaunWatson’s pass into the end zone was batted down, keeping the Texans ahead by only 36-29.
The Titans, who scored three touchdowns in their final four possessions, took just 1:46 to go 76 yards for the tying score.
After winning the actual coin flip before overtime, Tennessee needed only six plays to travel 82 yards to the game-winning score, a touchdown scored by Henry, who took a direct snap and barreled his way into the end zone from 5 yards out.
Henry got the drive started with a 53-yard catch-and-run after the Texans inexplicably let him leak out of the backfield uncovered.
They ignored the elephant in the room. Oh, and the 6-3, 250pound elephant runs like a gazelle, as he displayed on a 94yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps the outcome would have been different had Crennel elected to kick the extra point with just under two minutes remaining. But you can’t fault him for trying to win the game with his best player and best unit.
Because the Titans’ best player and best unit were almost unstoppable.
Itwas as simple as did he trust Watson and the offense to score a 2-point conversion more than he believed in his defense’s ability to prevent one?
That isn’t as much of a coin flip as the data suggests.
Especially because the Texans’ defense is awful.
There is little indication that it will improve. Winning games this season likely will come down to coin flip decisions by Crennel and spectacular play fromWatson.
The fourth-year quarterback completed 28-of-37 passes for 337 yards with four touchdowns. And it wasn’t enough.
“He had a great performance,” Crennel said. He does unbelievable things on the field.
“It is toughwhen you’re not able to take advantage of a performance like that.”
It is early in the season, but six games in the Texans are 1-5 and have little hope of making a playoff run.
Even if they settle in and win enough games to be on the playoff bubble late in the season, this is a game that they will remember as the one that got away. The one that cost them.
They lost a coin flip because they weren’t good enough to make a coin flip 50-50.
With the Texans’ defense, a coin flip is a 60-40 proposition.