We're Not Worried About the Texans After Their Week 1 Loss

The main game, like you said, was Houston Buffalo that had real SNF appeal.

It had, you know, TNF appeal, MNF appeal, uh, but we get it at the one o'clock hour.

I think just because.

Maybe the rest of the world didn't quite catch on to the Texans hype or, you know, the networks didn't see it at the time, and maybe for good reason because this was one of the worst games that the Houston Texans defense has played in almost 2 years.

The Bills win um.

46 to 31.

What are your immediate takeaways from this one, Albert?

I mean, I, I think we're, you know, and again, like week one's a liar.

Like we could wind up seeing a lot, a lot of dumb shit here over the next, over the next hour that doesn't wind up being true, but I, I, I look at like the Joe Brady Buffalo Bills, and it just looked a little different to me.

And I, Look, and we can go through the numbers here, right?

So 409 yards of total offense is the most the Texans defense has given up since Christmas 2024.

36 points, the most Houston's allowed since Christmas Eve 2023, um, and tied for the second most points allowed over the 58 games, playoffs included that Demio Ryan has been the head coach.

Um, this was, I mean, I think Buffalo.

firing on all cylinders offensively, and I think you're starting to see what they can become.

And, and this was something that a couple of people had pointed out to me when I was there over the summer was you don't understand how important Dalton Kincaid is to everything that we do, and if we can keep him healthy, then we're a different team.

And of course, Kincaid and DJ Moore wind up playing major roles in, in the way Josh Allen played.

But to me, like maybe the most, Uh, like the thing that like I'm gonna take away from this game is in that place that has not been good to Josh Allen the last couple of years, he throws the ball in the direction of Josh Palmer, right?

And I don't know, watching that play, I don't know, I didn't see if Palmer said anything about it after the game, but it looked to me almost like he lost the ball in the lights.

You know, I, I know a lot of people thought like, And, and I think even the broad game broadcast called it a YOLO throw, um, it like, it to me felt a little bit like Josh Palmer didn't track that properly, and that left Kamari Lassiter right there to pick it off, right?

So, if it was ever gonna get in Josh's head, like that, oh no, here we go again.

It was in that spot with his team down.

And he came right back the next play and just fired a dart for a 35, 34 yard touchdown right back to Palmer against Lassiter again and who, who, by the way, had not had a catch in the game, you know, and so I don't know, I just I take note of that sort of thing, cause I think it reflects a certain confidence, and a certain swagger, and a certain aggression that Joe Brady wants his team to play with, you know, and like, for them to have had such a bad night, um, not too long ago, like 10 months ago, um, where it just looked like they were short circuiting in every way possible, and the Texans were on top of them.

Um, to come back with, um, with a performance like this, I think is significant.

And, you know, again, like it's just highlighted by how well the quarterback played.

Uh, so it's interesting, right?

I mean, I think you could in that game count 5 to 6 turnover-worthy plays on Josh Allen's behalf.

And so, and, and this is how strange week one is.

We'll get to the Giants, uh, and the Cowboys in a little bit.

The Giants and for, I'm just using as an example, but converted almost 85% of their 3rd downs, which is like one of the best performances of this millennium.

And these things swing games, right?

It's just weird occurrences.

And so if you're the Houston Texans defense, do you look at this and say, boy, did we screw up, or is it, You know, this was a disastrous Josh Allen game, but like all of the picks went through our fingers, all the fumbles just didn't go, you know, I, I , I, I, I, I'm wondering if this is one of those tear down to the studs, Houston Texans defense moments where they look at themselves in the mirror, or do, Does Matt Burke and Damica Ryans, do they go back to the drawing board and say, like we were so close on some of those plays.

Now I know those guys are harder on themselves than any team, uh, in the NFL, but man, I'm, I'm curious, like how pissed off and how on a rampage they come out the next week.

Yeah, yeah, and, and that's certainly possible, but I mean there was also I mean, look, like, I, you know, Josh Allen's only sacked twice, like, and there's that piece of it, like, there's a bunch of stuff that, like you said, isn't going to recur.

Like there aren't gonna be too many games where the Ts pass rush is contained the way that the Bills were able to contain it.

There aren't gonna be too too many teams that have a quarterback like that.

And like you said, like there aren't gonna be a lot of games where they're not gonna be they're not gonna capitalize on the opportunities that they had the way that they did.

So, uh, it sounds like a cop-out, but this kind of does feel a little bit like You know, maybe something more significant for Buffalo than it is for Houston.

Yeah, I, I think it was an exorcism for Allan, certainly, right?

I mean, uh the, the entire conversation leading up to it was how poorly he's performed in that building, how much the Texans have seemed to have been, uh, his bugaboo.

And again, like the DJ Moore touchdown, for example, how close is Jalen Petrie to picking that thing off, right?

But instead, it goes for a 21 or 22 yard touchdown or maybe have been longer than that, but I, I, that is the breaks, those are the breaks of the game.

And I thought, when, when Joe Brady and Josh Allen, when they decided to go for it on that opening 4th down, and let Josh Allen do the quarterback boot, and Lassiter just got right into the backfield and pummeled him.

Weren't we all thinking the same thing?

Like, here we go, like, this team, this defense is just impenetrable.

Um, but I think, you know, week one is a week of either establishing or taking down narratives, and I think the one scary thing for Houston on the defensive front is like, maybe you just don't look as scary anymore to anyone else, you know.

Yeah, yeah, and, and, and, and there is that piece of it too, um.

Let me ask you this, do you feel better or worse about CJ Stroud after that?

That's exactly where I was gonna go with it.

I'm glad you said that.

So, here's my thoughts on Stroud.

I mean, I watched that game and I watched him very closely.

It's weird that you bookend the game with the fumbles, which is what everybody remembered you for the , the, the, in, in the playoff loss and kind of some of the big games leading up to that.

In between those, I thought that was the best he's looked since his rookie season.

He threw some darts.

I mean, I think it was that pass to, to Nico Collins that set up the first touchdown.

That was a top 5 throw from Sunday.

And I thought that there were a lot of moments, even on the final drive, right?

There were some, the, the, the twelve-yard throw, the 18-yard throw, to get them into a goal to go situation, given where they were in that one, and there was the gutting touchdown and everything like that.

I mean, I, I thought he played well.

The reality of the situation, Albert, and I hate to come back to this, and I hate to make it a cop-out.

Is that your right tackle is 34 year old, 30 three-year-old Trent Brown.

And if you're in a situation where another team has a very obvious key to pass rush, How confident are we in Trent Brown to, to, to, to stand up to this, right?

I mean, forever for them, you know, and that's what's frustrating is that you can bring in, uh, you can, you can bring in Braden Smith, you can bring in David Montgomery, you know, you can draft Rutledge, but I mean, you know, I, I think that there, there were some tackles flying around this offseason.

Now, in, Defensive Houston, you're Nick Caserio, you have the grading rubric.

Same with Demio Ryan's, you only bring in Texans guys.

If an offensive tackle is available on the free agent market, he's probably not your guy, right?

I mean, he's probably not your attitude, all that kind of stuff.

But like, if that's the case, then get active in this past draft where you, you had a guy like Maui Noah, you know, Again, we'll get to the Giants, Cowboys, but like, dominant, right?

And, you know, get active.

Uh, a bunch of those teams were dying to trade out, you know, go get that guy.

And so, I think that there's probably a little bit of lingering frustration when some of the same problems pop up.

And so for me, I'm less concerned about Stroud and I'm more concerned about the Texans' lack of Not lack of aggression, but it's like your big, your big offseason move was like Reed Blankenship, David Montgomery, and I think now I've gambled on age at like the, at, at like, so you gambled with older players on the offensive line, Braden Smith's gone now, um, you know, Wyatt Teller, I, I don't know what he's got left, like it's just some of the moves that you made were bets on older players and Trent Brown's one of them, you know.

Um, now, I, I, I think the left side of their line, like with Ursy and, and, and Rutledge, it looks like they're gonna have a chance to get something going there.

I mean, taking the two sacks at the end of the game, I, I don't know.

I mean, I talked to Greg Russo after the game, and he was able to get there in a 3-man rush, you know, and, uh, like, if you're in that spot, that makes it really hard for the quarterback, you know, they're in what, 3rd goal from the 18, and the fact that Russo is able to get to the quarterback when you're only rushing 3 and you're dropping 8 in the red zone, that's a really, really tough, tough luck.

Yeah, um, good job by Jimmy Lennon and Russo said to me, like, he's like, we didn't even really have to do it, we didn't do anything.

It was just a straight 3 man rush.

And that's what, at the end of the day, that's where it's, it's tough because that's where our concern lied with this team.

at the beginning, and I, I bought into the Texans hard.

Anyone who can uh pick up a magazine and purchase it can read about how hard I bought into this Texans team.

And so for me, I feel like it's even like a little bit personally, like, ah, like, you know, they ended exactly uh where, you know, they, they struggled exactly where we thought they were.

But I don't know, what, what, on Stroud, I, I thought arrows up, like, maybe, Diagonal up, like, not all the way, you know, but maybe like diagonal up on Stroud.

I, I would, you know, and I think it was the confidence in those big moments.

The second fumble, you know, I'm less worried about because it's the end of the game and it's like, you know, I, yeah, I mean you would have had one more, you know, what, because it was 3rd down, you would have had like a, a Hail Mary essentially, uh, into the end zone to try to make it happen, which I don't know, we all saw the Michigan game, so maybe it matters, but I'm less concerned about that one than I am the one on the opening drive, but I, I, I agree with the fans and, you know, everybody who's kind of saber rattling, because I wrote about this yesterday that, like, you just simply can't do that.

You can't put your team in that position, so I don't know, where do you come down on it?

Yeah, I, I'd say like, you saw what they want to be offensively, and I, I don't think they had the run game fully working the way that they see it work, even though they went for 124, they had to run it 32 times to get there.

Um, but I think you see was between Montgomery and Marks what they wanna be offensively, and I think that's only gonna make Stroud more effective.

Uh, you know, I think Jalen Noel making a big catch down the stretch, like, Um, losing Higgins to me was massive because they really thought Higgins was gonna have a huge year.

So having, you know, another young receiver kind of step up and, and be a factor when it really mattered, um, you know, I, I like, there are, there are encouraging signs there.

And, you know, I think peace, you know, there, you, you, you have to, like you said, piece the whole thing together.

And it's like, OK, like, where's the offensive identity?

They want to be more physical, match the identity they have on defense.

You saw the effort to, to, to, to get that going.

You saw, like, again, Nico Collins still has 7 catches, but you're seeing like, OK, he's willing to go to some other guys in key spots, including one that they drafted pretty highly.

Um, and he spread the ball around too, you know, like that's the other thing.

I'm looking at it now, 11 different receivers caught the ball.

Um, you know, so I.

I, I'd be optimistic that if the defense is what we all think the defense is, you know, and not.

And you know, not, not a group that, not, not, not reflective of, of what was, you know, their worst day in about 2 years and still wasn't like that horribly bad, you know, wasn't like a complete train wreck.

Um, I don't think much less of the Texans than I did 24 hours ago.