The Texans must run the ball more effectively down the stretch

Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien says the offense has to get better at running the football down the home stretch of the final five games.

The Houston Texans are seventh in the NFL with 136.9 rushing yards per game, and tied with the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals for the second-most yards per carry at 5.0.

However, coach Bill O’Brien believes the run game has to improve over the final five games.

“I think the running game has been good at times,” O’Brien told reporters on Nov. 22. “[Thursday night] the running game was tough. The Colts did a really good job. We were able to crack them a couple of times, but it was a tough, tough night.”

The Texans tallied 99 rushing yards on 24 carries. Running back Carlos Hyde was limited to 16 carries for 67 yards. Duke Johnson also tallied five carries for 22 yards.

During the Texans’ mini-bye before their Dec. 1 showdown with the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football at NRG Stadium, O’Brien says the team has to improve their rushing attack.

Said O’Brien: “I just think that we have to spend a lot of time this weekend on the running game as coaches, see where we’re at, what we’re doing… I think that’s a key in the last stretch of the season here. You’ve got to be able to run the football.

“You’ve got to be able to run the football at home, you’ve got to be able to run the football on the road, you’ve got to be able to run the football when they know you’re going to run the football.”

The Texans are 7-4 on the season and in first place in the AFC South. Running the ball also helps keep the offensive attack diverse and the defense can’t key on quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Texans RB Duke Johnson says Ravens were ‘not the big game we had circled’

Houston Texans running back Duke Johnson said after the 41-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens that the game was not one they had circled.

The Houston Texans dropped a game that was key to the positioning in the AFC playoff race with a 41-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

However, it may not have been a game upon which the club placed high emphasis.

When asked if the 34-point loss to the early No. 2 seed in the conference was frustrating, running back Duke Johnson simply said “no” and provided an explanation.

“This was not the big game we had circled,” Johnson told reporters. “We have bigger games.”

The former Cleveland Brown rushed six times for 40 yards and caught two passes for four more. Though the Texans have “bigger games” on the schedule, Johnson emphasized they seek victory in every contest.

Said Johnson: “Do we want to win them all? Of course we do. But you do not win them all. Everything we want is still sitting in front of us. We just need to go out and play better.”

The Texans get a quick turnaround as the Indianapolis Colts come into NRG Stadium Thursday night for a rematch and a first place battle for the AFC South. Both clubs are 6-4, but the Colts have the tiebreaker from a 30-23 win in Week 7 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Browns now officially own the Texans’ 3rd-round pick for Duke Johnson

Johnson has 60 carries for 327 yards and 24 receptions for 232 yards in Houston in 2019

[jwplayer cfZzcYxP-ThvAeFxT]

Duke Johnson was active for the Houston Texans in Week 11. When the running back made the active roster for the team’s 41-7 blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens, it finalized the trade that sent him from Cleveland to Houston this past summer.

Because Johnson has been active for 10 Texans games, the Browns now are guaranteed to earn the Texans’ third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The trade had a conditional draft pick, and the condition was Johnson being active for 10 or more games.

Had Johnson not hit the 10-game threshold, the Browns would have received Houston’s fourth-round pick.

Johnson has 60 carries for 327 yards and 24 receptions for 232 yards in Houston in 2019.

Where was the Texans’ run game against the Ravens?

The Houston Texans had the third-best rushing offense coming into Week 11, but it was nowhere to be found against the Baltimore Ravens.

The Baltimore Ravens creamed the Houston Texans 41-7 Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium, limiting the AFC South club to just 122 rushing yards and three first downs on the ground.

While running back Carlos Hyde provided a 41-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to ensure the Texans would not suffer their first shutout since Week 3 of 2016 with a 27-0 loss at the New England Patriots, the run game was nonexistent throughout the consequential portions of the game.

Coach Bill O’Brien provided an explanation as to what happened to the rushing offense that averaged 5.0 yards per carry coming into Week 3.

“We got behind,” O’Brien told reporters. “It was 14-0 and we tried to stick with the run, but eventually we had to try to throw the football and gain positive yards throwing the football and we just couldn’t do much of anything today.”

By halftime, the Texans had 36 yards on 11 carries with a 9-yard run as their longest carry of the first half. Houston had virtually no balance to take the edge off of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was 10-of-15 for 102 yards to that point, but had sustained five sacks.

If not for the 41-yard touchdown from Hyde, the 29-year-old would have finished with eight carries for 24 yards, which would have been lowest number of carries for the season and his second-lowest rushing yards total of the year.

Running back Duke Johnson provided six carries for 40 yards, and Watson added three carries for 12 yards.

The Texans dressed their best starting offensive line of the season with left tackle Laremy Tunsil, left guard Max Scharping, center Nick Martin, right guard Zach Fulton, and right tackle Tytus Howard. Houston was unable to get the run game going, and it contributed to the lack of balance in the loss that drops the club to 6-4 on the season.

Texans officially give up 2020 third-round pick to Browns from the RB Duke Johnson trade

The Houston Texans officially will give up a 2020 third-round pick to the Cleveland Browns as part of the trade for RB Duke Johnson.

Not only the Houston Texans lose 41-7 to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium, but they also lost a 2020 third-round draft pick.

One of the conditions of the trade with the Cleveland Browns for running back Duke Johnson was that the Texans would give up a third-round pick if Johnson was active for at least 10 games in 2019. On Sunday, Johnson was on the game day 46. As a result, rather than giving the Browns a fourth-round pick, the selection was upped to a third-rounder.

The Texans may not have got good value out of Johnson on Sunday as he caught two passes for four yards and rushed six times for 40. However, he has been a key part of a dual attack in the Houston backfield alongside running back Carlos Hyde that has helped the club stay diverse in their offensive attack despite Pro Bowl running back Lamar Miller being out for the season with a torn ACL.

Houston doesn’t have a third-round pick as they dealt their third-rounder obtained in the Jadeveon Clowney trade to the Oakland Raiders for cornerback Gareon Conley.

How the Ravens can contain Deshaun Watson and other questions for Texans Wire

I talk with Texans Wire managing editor Mark Lane to get the inside scoop on what to expect from Ravens vs. Texans in Week 11.

The Baltimore Ravens get a near clone of themselves in Week 11 when they take on the Houston Texans. With a quarterback also in the discussion for the NFL’s MVP award, a tough rushing attack and a defense that has gotten the job done but hasn’t necessarily looked the greatest along the way, the Ravens are in for a taste of their own medicine.

To get a closer look at what Houston has going for them this season and where Baltimore might look to attack, I turned to Texans Wire managing editor Mark Lane.

1) Deshaun Watson has been having a great season but has also had a few mediocre games. How have opposing defenses been able to contain him in those efforts?

There are two tricks to slowing down Watson. The first is to generate a pass rush up the middle that is so overwhelming that he can’t evade his way out of the problem. The second way is to have really great coverage and force him to sit on some passes. One of the best things Watson does is get the ball out quickly and also avoid the first wave of pass rushers. Another element that helps is to stuff the run game. If the run game isn’t working, and Watson is all they have on the ground, that also allows the defense to key in on him and shut him down.

Pages: 12345