Tight ends hope to catch up
Texans tight end Pharaoh Brown says you can really “pick anywhere” when trying to break down last week’s 40-0 loss to the Bills and still come to the conclusion they just “got our (butt) kicked.”
“It’s just one of those times you’ve just got to keep the same mindset that you do in the old saying, ‘Flush it after 24 hours and keep going,’ ” Brown said Friday. “… You got knocked out, you’ve got to get back up, and what are you going to do next?”
The production from the tight ends has been minimal since Brown caught four passes for 67 yards in the season-opening win over the Jaguars. Jordan Akins has been the featured receiver in the group, leading tight ends with six catches for 53 yards in the last three games. Brown had one catch for six yards against the Bills.
Texans coach David Culley dismissed the notion Brown’s decreased productivity was affected by the loss of starting quarterback back Tyrod Taylor, who has been sidelined since halftime of the Browns game with a hamstring injury.
“I don’t think it’s the change in quarterbacks,” Culley said. “I think it was the fact that he wasn’t playing as good later on as he has been, as he was playing earlier. Not just him, but other guys also. When one guy on the offense, we talk about being ‘one-11th’; when one guy on the offense is not doing his job, it affects everybody else’s job.”
The Texans had nearly the same amount of penalty yardage (100) as total offensive yards (109) against the Bills, a stat that wide receiver Brandin Cooks says underlines that “none of us played good, not one soul on the offense.”
Culley has maintained his devotion to the offense’s run-oriented philosophy, which often uses multiple tight end formations
to bolster run blocking.
The Texans have tried to limit predictability by spreading out the tight ends in five-wide sets on plays that follow heavypackage runs. But the variance has done little to improve productivity so far.
Rookie Brevin Jordan ,a pass-catching option in the slot at Miami, has yet to be activated this season, and, after missing Friday’s practice with an illness, he’s considered questionable against the Patriots.
“If you look at some of our tendencies, we are more run heavy out of those sets,” Brown said. “I think breaking the tendency and we did some stuff with three tight ends trying to get some pass plays in there to so teams aren’t just like, ‘Hey, they got the three tight end set, we know what’s going on.’ I think we did some of that last year, but we only had 30 plays last week. There’s not a lot you can do with 30 plays.”
Tunsil looking to ‘play smart’
Left tackle Laremy Tunsil said his theme is
“be more consistent” after his holding call contributed to a 10-penalty day that doomed the Texans against the Bills.
Tunsil and tight end Pharaoh Brown did not attribute the issues to adapting to rookie quarterback Davis Mills and cadences that deviate from former starter Taylor, who remains on the injured reserve with a pulled hamstring.
“We really do have to play smart,” Tunsil said. “Those are unnecessary penalties and we don’t need to have that. We got to be locked into his cadence no matter if it’s a different quarterback in there, we got to be locked into the cadence.
“The holding penalties, you just got to keep your hands inside, unnecessary penalties we don’t need that.”
Heck may start at right tackle
Starting right tackle Marcus Cannon has not practed all week and is listed as questionable against the Patriots. The team has prepared Charlie
Heck to start in Cannon’s place if needed.
Heck started in all three preseason games. But Cannon has played in all but 28 snaps this season at right tackle, and Heck has only seen one snap each when brought in on unbalanced offensive packages against the Browns and Panthers.
Cannon assumed the starting role when Heck tested positive for coronavirus ahead of Houston’s season opener against the Jaguars. Geron Christian subbed in for 28 snaps to relieve Cannon, who hadn’t played in a game since 2019.