Running on empty takes you nowhere
It didn’t take long for Brandin Cooks to realize Sunday’s game against the Dolphins was getting out of hand.
In fact, Cooks said he felt things slipping away as soon as the Texans touched the field.
“From an offensive standpoint, the moment we stepped out there,” Cooks said. “Plays weren’t being made. We weren’t helping the quarterback in any way. I don’t know how to explain it.”
The Texans trailed 30-0 at halftime and ended up losing 30-15. But Cooks said he couldn’t take any positivity from the loss. Not even from how they played in the second half.
“We lost 30-0 at the half,” he said. “We got beat bad. So no.”
The Texans are 1-9-1 and have now lost six consecutive games. Players and coaches are clearly frustrated.
Here are five things we learned from the loss:
1. Running game struggles
For the second consecutive week, rookie running back Dameon Pierce rushed for only 8 yards. Last week, he did it on 10 carries. This week, he did it on five. He struggled to get anything going, and after trailing 30-0 at halftime, the Texans abandoned the run early.
Pierce said teams are taking the formula the Titans utilized in Week 8, when they limited him to 35 yards on 15 carries.
“They’re stacking the line,” Pierce said. “Putting five down linemen up there, three down linemen, two stand up D-ends and letting the linebackers play the gaps. That’s hard to run against in any system.”
Four of Pierce’s five runs had seven or more defenders in the box. Pierce gained 4 yards on those runs. When the Texans aren’t effective running the ball, their offense as a whole is inefficient.
That was certainly the case Sunday. Pierce has 16 yards on 15 carries in the last two games. The Texans must do a better job getting their running game going.
Pierce is their best player and forces teams to pay attention.
“The running game is about one-on-one blocking up front first,” Texans coach Lovie Smith said. “It’s about man-onman. We’ve done that for the majority of the season. Last couple of weeks, we’ve kind of lost that. We’ve got to get it back. Better technique, better want-to is a must as much as anything. We’re not going to abandon the run. Everybody has to still be able to run the football. We just have to do it better.”
Running back Eno Benjamin was inactive for the second consecutive game. Smith said he didn’t feel Benjamin gave the Texans the best chance to win Sunday.
But if Rex Burkhead, who is in concussion protocol this week, misses time, Benjamin is the next man up.
“He’s been here a couple weeks now,” Smith said Monday. “It’s documented what type of football player (he is). If we do need someone else to set up, it’s good to have a player like that in the hole ready to go.”
2. Zone looking ineffective
The Texans are playing zone defense on almost all of their dropbacks. And against the Dolphins, they paid for it. Time and again, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found an open receiver in the zone and often hit him.
He passed for 299 yards and a touchdown in three quarters. He sat the fourth because the Dolphins were leading 30-6.
According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Tagovailoa faced zone on 90 percent of his dropbacks. He was 20-of-33 for 284 yards against the zone.
He faced man defense on only three of his dropbacks and was 2-of-3 for 15 yards and a touchdown.
The Texans were at their best when they were running Cover 4. Tagovailoa was 0for-4 when the Texans ran a Cover 4. The Texans were at their worst when they ran a Cover 3. Tagovailoa was 7-of-8 for 93 yards against Cover 3 defense.
Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle each had 85 yards receiving.
3. Losing turnover battle
The Texans finally forced their first turnover since Week 8. It happened late in the third quarter when third-string Dolphins quarterback Skylar Thompson fumbled the snap near midfield. Texans safety M.J. Stewart recovered it.
But it didn’t matter much. By then, the Texans were trailing 30-6 with less than a minute left in the third. Tagovailoa already was pulled from the game.
The Texans lost the turnover battle again, and that’s been the difference in these games.
The Dolphins forced three turnovers Sunday — two interceptions and a forced fumble they returned for a touchdown. This allowed Miami to build the big lead in the first half.
The Texans haven’t won the turnover battle since their Week 5 victory over the Jaguars, their lone win.
4. Allen’s day
Quarterback Kyle Allen struggled mightily in the first half, passing for only 49 yards. He was sacked five times in the game and didn’t get much help.
He finally got going in the second half, but by then it was too late.
The biggest thing for Allen, though, is turnovers. He’s got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. He threw two interceptions and fumbled twice. Fortunately, the Texans recovered both fumbles.
But turnovers have been an issue throughout his career. In 2019, when he started with the Panthers, he had 13 fumbles, losing seven, and 16 interceptions in 13 games.
Against the Dolphins, Allen finished 26-of-39 for 215 yards, a touchdown and the two interceptions.
“It’s just not good enough,” Allen said. “The interception early was just … I know I can’t do that. It was essentially a pick-six when they get the ball at the 2-yard line. We were down 17-0 at that point. I’ve got to be a lot better if we’re going to win games.”
The interception Allen referenced happened with 12:34 left in the second quarter. Allen threw off his back foot, and his pass to Pierce sailed over the running back’s head and into the hands of Dolphins linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. Van Ginkel returned the interception to the 3-yard line, and one play later, the Dolphins punched it in for a 17-0 lead.
Allen did make some good throws, like his 39-yard deep pass to Cooks in the third quarter, but it was too little too late. There weren’t enough of those plays made.
“I didn’t execute my job today,” Allen said. “I know at the quarterback position you can’t make things right when things are wrong. It’s my job to do that.”
Smith said Allen would be the starter against Cleveland on Sunday and not be removed prematurely.
“That’s why starting off, Kyle (Allen) was playing better football in the second half than he played in the first,” Smith said Monday. “That interception at the end, we can’t have that. Just overall, we didn’t score a point in the first half. We scored 15 in the second (half ) with him leading it. So hopefully, that’s just a part of it.
“You have to assume the best ball will be a little later on, and hopefully this week, we’ll see more improvement.”
5. Stat of the day
The Texans threw more passes behind the line of scrimmage than they did intermediate and deep passes combined.
Allen was 8-of-9 for 22 yards on passes that went behind the line of scrimmage and 2-of-6 for 46 yards and an interception on passes that traveled for 10 yards or more.
That was drastically different than Tagovailoa, who threw just two passes behind the line of scrimmage and was 10-of-17 on passes that traveled 10 or more yards.