Where the San Francisco 49ers can dominate the Houston Texans

The Texans are decidedly shorthanded.

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The San Francisco 49ers are used to playing shorthanded, but this week they will also face a foe that is coming in without their best player on offense. Nico Collins is going to miss the Houston Texans' Week 8 matchup with the 49ers due to a concussion. 

Houston Texans will be shorthanded against San Francisco 49ers

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Collins is as close to the Texans' version of Nick Bosa or Fred Warner as they have. He tends to stir the drink on the offense, and when they need a spark, he is the one who provides it. Texans quarterback CJ Stroud is clearly a better quarterback with Collins on the field. 

This season, Stroud has a 6.73 adjusted net yards per attempt when Collins is on the field. Without him, that number drops to 4.67. His touchdown-to-interception ratio nearly drops in half, and his completion percentage shrinks by over 8% without Collins. The Texans' EPA per play is 0.132 with Collins on the field compared to 0.025 without him. 

That is just this season; over the course of Stroud's career, his ANY/A drops 1.21 yards per attempt without Collins, and his EPA drops from 0.231 to 0.139 without him. Stroud has a big sample of being worse without Collins. 

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The Texans will not only miss Collins, but Christian Kirk will miss as well, although he has only appeared in three games this season. Still, it will leave the Texans with a starting three of Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, and Xavier Hutchinson. 

Hutchinson has started for the majority of the season, but this player averages 0.75 yards per route run. Noel and Higgins are both rookies who have flashed, but neither has been able to consistently get on the field, which indicates the coaching staff is not quite confident in them yet. 

San Francisco lost both Renardo Green and Upton Stout last week, but it appears both are going to be in the lineup against Houston. Deommodore Lenoir had a minor injury but was not even on the injury report this week. 

The 49ers' offense is going to struggle against the Texans' defense, and the 49ers' pass rush is going to be down another pass rusher with Bryce Huff out. If the 49ers secondary cannot shut down Hutchinson, Noel, and Higgins, the odds of them losing this game are very high. This is the one matchup the team must dominate to have a chance.