Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is frustrated.
The Texans held the Pittsburgh Steelers to 79 rushing yards in the first half Sunday in Week 3 at Heinz Field. Running back James Conner had nine carries for 39 yards, his longest run being 13 yards. Houston’s defense had him bottled up, and the score reflected as much with the Texans leading 21-17 at the break.
By the end of the game, the Texans gave up 169 rushing yards with Conner gaining an extra 70 yards on nine more carries. Houston’s run defense, as it had the first two weeks of the season, bent to the point it broke.
“I don’t know why we can play the run well early on and not finish it,” Watt told reporters after the 28-21 loss to Pittsburgh. “So, I need to get that answer so we can figure it out. We have to — I mean, whether we’re not playing our gaps because — I don’t know what it is, but we got to figure it out. You’re going to lose football games and we are losing football games, and we need to win.
The problem puzzles Watt because they excel at all other aspects of stopping the run. However, when teams run to the outside, they find their yards.
“We got a sudden edge, we got to get hands to the ball, and we make the plays,” said Watt. “We’re just giving up runs around edge like it was easy. We can’t do that. We cannot do that.”
The Texans have the Minnesota Vikings coming into NRG Stadium on Oct. 4. Both teams are 0-3 and will be deploying their best schemes to get that elusive first win of the season.
Said Watt: “We got to watch film, we go to figure it out, but we cannot — I mean, we’re not going to win football games doing what we’re doing in the fourth quarter these last two weeks of giving up these runs.”