The Houston Texans are entering their last game of the season with a 4-12 record and they may have finally found an identity on offense.
According to rookie quarterback Davis Mills, the struggle to find an identity has been on of the challenges the Texans have had to meet throughout the 2021 campaign.
“I think we’ve kind of had to change identities a couple times throughout the season as different players get put in, as people get banged up and we have to replace them with different guys,” Mills said. “So, we’ve kind of been playing around with that all season.”
One of the biggest areas where the Texans had to change their identity was at quarterback. Tyrod Taylor was the intended starter, and Houston got off to a cautiously optimistic start with a 37-21 beatdown of the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1 that featured an aerial attack complemented by a productive ground game. However, when Taylor injured his hamstring in Week 2 and did not return until Week 9, Mills had to start under center for Houston. As the rookie got valuable on-the-job training, Houston went on a seven-game losing streak.
Even with Taylor’s return to the lineup, Houston was still in a funk and posted a 1-3 record before going back to Mills, who has led the Texans on one of their more stable stretches of the season with a 2-2 record entering Week 18.
“I think the past couple games we’ve kind of started to find what we want to be, more of a balance between run and pass,” said Mills. “Obviously, with the run game starting to perform a little better later in the season, that’s helped a lot in the play-action game and just spreading the ball around.
“I think as long as we can do that and just be consistent on first and second down to keep us in manageable third down situations, I think we have a ton of talent on the team and getting ourselves in those advantageous positions will allow us to spread the ball around a lot better.”
Houston has a chance to get their fifth win of the season and enter the 2022 offseason on an optimistic note as they face the 11-5 Tennessee Titans Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at NRG Stadium.