For second week in a row, offense fails to produce
Turnover-prone quarterback’s play just one of numerous flaws in a third straight defeat
LOS ANGELES — It was an offensive performance for the ages. The dark ages. If the Texans’ offense had been shooting a pilot for a network television show, production would have been shut down Sunday afternoon at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Which is what the Rams did to the Texans in the second half of this 33-7 humiliation that gave them a three-game losing streak and a 3-6 record for the first time in Bill O’Brien’s four seasons.
The Texans looked like a legitimate NFL team — at least a legit defensive team — in the first half. They trailed 9-7 at halftime thanks to an outstanding performance by a defense that limited the league’s highest-scoring team to three field goals.
But in the second half, the Texans looked like a bunch of seat fillers at the Academy Awards, generating only 95 yards and getting shut out 24-0.
Savage mistakes hurt
Tom Savage committed four turnovers — two interceptions and two strip sacks. He would have thrown a pick-six if a holding call on the Rams had not wiped it out.
As Savage admitted afterward, one touchdown won’t win anything.
“To be honest with you, it’s on the quarterback when you put up seven points,” he said. “It’s on me. It’s not like we were lighting up the world.
“Obviously, it’s not a good game when you put up seven points.”
It’s hard to believe that 60,032 fans couldn’t find something better to do on a Sunday afternoon in Southern California than watch this travesty, another of the Texans’ tired, old offensive acts since rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson was lost for the season.
In the first half, the Texans were respectable, but Savage’s second turnover set the tone for what was to come in the last 30 minutes. Savage’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Ellington gave the Texans a 7-6 lead with 6:31 left in the first half.
The defense was stuffing Todd Gurley and the Rams’ running game and smothering second-year quarterback Jared Goff. Rams first-year coach Sean McVay was so frustrated by his team’s inability to move the ball and score a touchdown that he called for a fake punt on fourthand-7 from his 32.
Punter Johnny Hekker threw a 6-yard completion to Pharoh Cooper, but Kurtis Drummond stopped him 1-yard short, giving the Texans the ball at the Rams’ 38-yard line with 3:30 left.
With excellent field position, a touchdown would have given the Texans a 14-6 lead and valuable momentum for the second half.
A field goal would have made it 10-6, still a shock to the Rams’ system.
The worst possible thing would be a turnover.
When it comes to Savage and the offense, expect the worst.
When Lamar Miller ran for 21 yards on first down to the Rams’ 17-yard line, they appeared to be on a roll. They never got inside the 15.
On second-and-17 from the 20, after a holding call on left guard Xavier Su’a-Filo, Savage threw to tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz, but inside linebacker Mark Barron intercepted the pass.
“I was trying to anticipate (Barron) biting down (but) he stayed high — something I can learn from,” Savage said.
Not only did the Texans fail to score, but the Rams got a 50-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein to take a 9-7 lead at halftime.
“I felt like at the end of the first half, that was disappointing,” O’Brien said. “We just weren’t doing anything offensively.
“If you’re not doing anything offensively, it’s hard (for the defense) to be on the field all that time.”
In the second half, the Rams rose from the ashes, and the Texans went down the toilet.
Goff was reborn in the second half, throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair to receiver Robert Woods, one a 94-yard play that energized the Rams and deflated the Texans.
Long wait until next year
As usual, O’Brien tried to take the blame, but no matter how many times he says it’s his fault, don’t buy it. He doesn’t allow strip sacks, throw interceptions or surrender 94-yard touchdown passes.
“I haven’t done a good job of coaching this team this year, and that was my message to the team,” O’Brien said about his postgame speech. “I have to figure out how to coach this team better and try to get them to play better.”
The coaching and playing will look at whole lot better when the Texans get to training camp in West Virginia, where Watson, J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus — among others — should be healthy and joined by free agents and draft choices acquired during the offseason.
Unfortunately, the Texans have to play seven games.
“We didn’t play well,” O’Brien said. “We’ve done some good things at times during the year, but (we’ve) been very inconsistent, and that’s the mark of a coach that needs to do a better job.”