The Houston Texans staked their claim on being able to run the football.
For the past two weeks, offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton’s run heavy offense has been able to reach the 50-yard mark as a team, let alone have a runner who touched that mark over the past two games.
Dameon Pierce entered Week 12 the NFL’s leading rusher among rookies with 780. That lead may not be there by the time Monday night’s contest goes final, and it is chiefly due to the run game going cold for Houston.
The Miami Dolphins limited Pierce to five carries for eight yards in their 30-15 win over the Texans Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium. Houston’s leading ball-carrier was Dare Ogunbowale with four carries for 14 yards and a touchdown. The second-leading rusher was quarterback Kyle Allen, who was making his first start in place of second-year Davis Mills. The former Texas A&M and Houston product had four carries for 12 yards.
Pierce believes teams are stopping the Texans’ run game because they are deciding to take the Bill Belichick approach of taking away what a team does best.
“That’s our identity,” said Pierce. “That’s what we want to come out and base our offense of us.”
It would be easy to believe the Dolphins just had “one of those days” against the Texans’ run game, but so did Washington a week prior at NRG Stadium, limiting Houston to 21 rushing yards.
“We weren’t saying it’s the first six, seven weeks, it’s just something we’re in the dump with right now,” Pierce said. “But we’re going to figure something out and we’re going to get our thing back on track and going where we need to be moving forward.”
The Texans fall to 1-9-1 on the season and are still on pace to possess the No. 1 overall pick the 2023 NFL draft.