Hyde, Johnson tandem powering offense
The collaboration between running backs Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson extends beyond the walls of the Texans’ locker room.
Hyde and Johnson became friends last year while playing for the Browns, but that partnership was scuttled when Hyde was traded to the Jaguars and Johnson was supplanted by Nick Chubb on the depth chart.
“We tend to leave football in this locker room,” Johnson said. “Carlos is my guy, for sure.”
Unlike a year ago when they played for a losing team, Hyde and Johnson have formed a strong tandem that’s a vital part of the Texans offense.
At 6-foot, 230 pounds, Hyde is a hammer on inside runs who has enough speed to break away from pursuit. Johnson is built low to the ground at 5-9, 210 pounds and runs routes and catches as well as many wide receivers.
Johnson displayed a lot of power Sunday when he trucked Jaguars corner Tre Herndon for his first touchdown since being traded to the Texans in the preseason.
Now, Hyde and Johnson are getting a full season to show what they can do collectively.
“I think that’s one of the main reasons for this year because he wasn’t traded midway through the season,” Johnson said “We have more time. The longer something goes on, the better it should be.”
That’s been the case for the Texans’ running game. They’ve already rushed for 1,285 yards with an average of five yards per carry. They rank fifth in the league in rushing offense with an average of 142.8 yards per game.
At the start of training camp, the Texans’ backfield looked much different.
Lamar Miller was coming off his second-best season as a Texan (973 yards rushing), and the Texans were still evaluating D’Onta Foreman.
The Texans cut Foreman and traded for Johnson from Cleveland a few days later. Miller wound up tearing his ACL in the third preseason game.
After Miller got hurt, the Texans found their starting running back in Hyde after Kansas City called to talk trade. Houston got Hyde for offensive lineman Martinas Rankin.
“I think it was a great acquisition on our behalf, Coach (Bill O’Brien) and the rest of the guys upstairs,” running backs coach Danny Barrett said. “Just the both of them together, being former teammates, I think really made a difference. When Hyde got here, Duke was already here a couple weeks, so he kind of helped him out away from the game, away from the office talking about the offense.
“He didn’t miss a beat. It’s like he had been here all of training camp. That was really a plus for us and moving forward, just the combination of the two guys is really good. I think they complement each other very well.”
Hyde rushed for a season-high 160 yards Sunday in London during a 26-3 win over the Jaguars, including runs of 58 and 48 yards. Johnson caught five passes for 68 yards.
“They’ve been productive,” O’Brien said. “They’re good guys. They’re good teammates, they care about winning.
They care about doing the right thing for the team. You’re not really worried about how many carries they get or how many times they touch the ball.
“They just want to help the team win. I think that’s a big deal. I think that Carlos and Duke have been good additions. I think we can do more things with them.”
Hyde has rushed for 704 yards and three touchdowns. He’s been more than a tackle-breaker, too.
“Carlos can do it all,” Johnson said. “He just needed that opportunity, and he’s made the most of it.”
Johnson has gained 287 yards and is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He also has 22 catches for 228 yards and two touchdowns.
“I think we’ve been productive so far,” Johnson said. “It’s still relatively early in the season. We have to keep it up.”
As much as the offense was in gear Sunday, Hyde says there’s plenty of room for improvement. He lost a fumble when he failed to switch hands and cost himself a potential 60-yard touchdown.
“I’m real proud of the offense,” Hyde said. “We’ve made big strides. We’ve still got a lot of work to do still. We’re still shooting ourselves in the foot. If we can eliminate that, we can be even more explosive. We’re going to enjoy this bye week, rest up and hopefully get some more of our guys back and keep moving forward.”
The added element of long runs is something the Texans have hoped for. The way Hyde ran away from pursuit could make a dangerous offense even more potent.
“They’re huge,” Barrett said. “We talked about it just looking at the board the other day. We had some plays where we were just hitting them, hitting them, hitting them and then all of a sudden, you look up and you have two plays over 100 yards in the running game, and that makes a big difference.
“It’s like a dagger to the defense, but also a big boost not only the offense, but for the whole team. You can see the excitement on the sideline when those things happen.”