One would think there was very little encouragement to come out of the Houston Texans’ 41-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium, but coach Bill O’Brien was able to identify it.
O’Brien met with reporters after the game and shared that even though the loss was devastating on the scoreboard, the players were never out of it.
“We’ve got a good bunch of guys,” O’Brien said. “It was terrible. I’m sure you’re going to obviously report it that way. And that’s what it was. It wasn’t very good. If you watch our guys closely, guys are playing their [butts] off at the end of the game. [They’re] fighting hard. We’ve got a good bunch of guys that I totally believe in, in there.”
The Ravens out-gained the Texans 491 total yards to 232 and collected 25 first downs to their 16. Quarterback Deshaun Watson took six sacks as part of his forgettable day that ended completing 16 passes on 29 attempts for 169 yards and an interception. His Ravens counterpart, Lamar Jackson, threw four touchdown passes and was sacked just once.
Down 34-0 with 7:18 to go in the game, running back Carlos Hyde ensured the Texans would not suffer their third regular season shutout as he rushed for a 41-yard touchdown. Baltimore would score another touchdown af
“We just need to turn the page and move forward,” said O’Brien.
The Texans will turn the page rather quickly as they lead off the Week 12 schedule with a Thursday night encounter with the Indianapolis Colts at NRG Stadium. Houston will finish up their season series with the Colts, who beat the Texans 30-23 in Week 7. At 6-4, technically, the Colts have the tiebreaker for first place over Houston, and a win would assuredly give them an extra advantage.
Houston can’t mope long.
“It is an important game, obviously, a divisional game,” said O’Brien. “So yeah, sure, that helps.”