As much as the Houston Texans have struggled in 2022, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask for the team to at least start losing in an exciting fashion. They’ve committed full-bore to tanking for the rest of the season, which became clear when they refused to give star running back Dameon Pierce more than 10 carries last week against the New York Giants.
Facing an even more established team in Week 12, Houston will need to find ways to, at a bare minimum, lose with style. A reporter asked offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton on Wednesday if he had any plays to help push the ball downfield, to which the coach smiled wryly and answered in the affirmative.
“Yes. Yes, we do,” Hamilton explained. “It’s important that we always find way to feature our playmakers. We feel like Brandin Cooks, Phillip Dorsett, we have a number of guys, Nico Collins and now Chris Moore. They are all guys who can attack the field vertically, as well as our tight ends. That’s been a big part of what we’ve tried to do throughout the season. Not just feature our receivers, but also our tight ends in the vertical passing game. We’ve got to get more out of our vertical attack.”
Hopefully Hamilton has the intention of actually calling whatever plays he has in the playbook that might make this week’s matchup against the Miami Dolphins a bit more watchable than previous games. With rumors of a potential quarterback change swirling, this might be the perfect opportunity to throw caution to the wind and just play a bit of Madden-ball against an opponent that is clearly of a higher caliber.
Then, even when the Texans lose, at least fans would have something to point to that might indicate that the team has any fight left in it after a season of non-stop disappointment.