The Houston Texans are going to have to take the road less traveled to get back to the .500 mark before the 2022 season ends, and offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton laid out a simple strategy that may help the team stay out of sticky situations when his unit is on the field.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he fielded a question about his thoughts on how the offense handles first and second downs. In his comments, he made it clear that these downs are crucial to the team’s success on third down too, and can help set them up for success in key moments of the game.
“It’s always important to have a high level of execution on early downs to stay out of obvious passing situations as often as you can,” Hamilton said. “Depending on the opponent, we just have to find ways to incrementally move the ball and try and avoid third down altogether. Our goal is to not have a third down. But if we do, we want it to be a situation where we feel like the defense is going to ultimately have to defend the run and the pass.”
The Texans can’t afford to become one-dimensional on offense. They have a burgeoning ground game behind the strength of rookie Dameon Pierce’s fierce running style, and if quarterback Davis Mills can continue improving his abilities as a passer, the unit may become a strength of the team in the near future.
Hamilton will have to maximize all of the available talent at his disposal against the Tennessee Titans in Week 8, and won’t have much of a margin for error against such a challenging opponent. Watch for these early-down situations to play a big role in the outcome of the game, and for Houston to get their second win of the season if they can navigate them properly.