Texans Trouble: Davis Mills Not Ready For Primetime in Loss to Eagles
We're not sure what the ultimate solution is for the Houston Texans at quarterback.
But after Thursday night's dismal performance, we're more certain than ever that it's not Davis Mills.
Even when he was good against the NFL's best team, he was bad. And when he was bad, Mills was downright horrible.
He finished 13 of 22 for 154 yards with two touchdowns, two interceptions, and three sacks in the competitive 29-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. But from his skittish body language to his panicky decision-making, to his wild inaccuracy, Mills again proved he's not ready for prime-time success. And not ready to be the Texans' quarterback of the future.
After the game, coach Lovie Smith heaped praise on his team's effort in general and on rookie running back Dameon Pierce in specific.
“Every time Dameon has stepped on the field, same type of effort he gives," Smith said. "On what we want to be - a running football team, physical, running attack - our tailback … kinda says it all on what we’d like to be.”
The same can't be said for Mills, the second-year deer-in-headlights from Stanford.
Mostly, it's Mills' bad decisions and worse throws that are stunting the Texans' growth. With him at quarterback, they are 3-15-1 and this season have scored more than 20 points only once in eight games.
Any hope and momentum he created with his decent play at the end of 2021 have now vanished, erased by eight interceptions in his last six games and an array of stunning inaccuracy against the Eagles.
Mills did throw on a dart on his best pass of the night, a rolling-right 13-yard touchdown to Chris Moore that tied the game at 14 just before halftime.
But more often than not, his ball placement turned completions into incompletions, and touchdowns into merely long gains.
His first-half statistics appeared sparkling: 8 of 9 for 90 yards and two touchdowns. But a closer look magnified his weakness. Despite being buoyed by Pierce's 139 rushing yards on 27 carries, Mills made even the easy difficult.
On Houston's first possession receiver Phillip Dorsett blew past Eagles' cornerback James Bradberry. But with a good three yards of separation, he was forced to wait and twist for a Mills pass that was underthrown over the wrong shoulder. A good throw was a touchdown. Instead, Houston settled for a 34-yard gain to Philly's 6-yard line.
Two plays later Mills completed a 2-yard touchdown to tight end Teagan Quitoriano. But because the quarterback didn't set his feet and wound up lofting an off-balance, 50-50 ball into the end zone, an initially open Quitoriano had to slow down, stop, jump and ultimately out-fight two Eagles' defenders for the ball and the score.
It might sound nit-picky, but Mills' passes deteriorated walk-ins into wars.
In the second half, he significantly regressed, completing only 5 of 13 for 64 yards and two high-schoolish interceptions that first changed the game and then ultimately sealed the deal.
With the game still tied in the third quarter, Mills faced 3rd-and-6 from his own 24. Not a time for risk-taking. A punt would have been acceptable. But instead, he showed a laughable lack of pocket awareness, moving up into traffic before leaving his feet and offering a wounded duck to nowhere that was easily picked off by Eagles' cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Philly accepted the gift, turned it into a touchdown and never looked back.
More Mills misfires handcuffed any Texans' rally. In the fourth quarter alone, he badly missed three passes that could've made the outcome interesting.
He threw way too far outside toward an open Brevin Jordan, forcing the tight end to stop and attempt an acrobatic catch on the sideline. A good throw hitting Jordan in stride would've resulted in a big gain inside Philly's 20. After a replay review, it was ruled an incompletion.
Mills later again underthrew Dorsett on a 27-yard catch in which he had to - stop me if you've heard this one before - slow down and turn over the wrong shoulder to make a diving grab. (This is the part where we don't blame receiver Brandin Cooks for wanting to be traded to a contender with a legitimate quarterback.)
On Houston's final drive, Mills missed open tight end Jordan Akins over the middle inside Philly's 5. An accurate pass out in front of Akins would have been an easy touchdown. Instead, Mills threw the ball to his back hip, allowing trailing Eagles' linebacker Haason Reddick to catch up and bat it down for an incompletion.
Two plays later, Mills punctuated his hapless performance with another pass floated in the general direction of nobody - other than Bradberry - for a game-ending interception.
The bad news: The Texans are no better than they were in 2021. They're 5-19-1 over the last season-and-a-half. And it's going to get worse before it gets better, as they likely won't be favored in a game until the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town Jan. 1, 2023 in Week 17.
The good news: Help is on the way, eventually. Consider this painful period as the Texans' version of the Houston Astros of 2011-13, when they absorbed at least 106 losses in three consecutive seasons while quietly stockpiling their farm system with young talent that is now on the verge of winning two World Series in the last six years. At 1-6-1, the Texans are trending toward, at worst, a Top 3 pick in next April's NFL Draft.
Can Mills be a capable backup in the NFL? We'll see. But he won't be the starter when the Texans again compete for a playoff spot.
Who will?
How about C.J. Stroud of Ohio State, Will Levis of Kentucky or - according to this new 2023 Mock Draft - Alabama Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young?
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