The Houston Texans are falling apart and there are a lot of reasons why.
The first of the double-digit weeks of this NFL season has officially come and gone and what a week of action it was.
Status quo was maintained with teams like the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets in negative ways, but the positive side of the spectrum was up to par as well with the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions maintaining their respective leads.
A whole heck of a lot happened in between though, and that is the part of the sandwich that we, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, specialize in.
Welcome to The Skinny Post, where we may or may not offer our opinions on our favorite sandwiches as well as the current state of the NFL.
It is time to hold DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud accountable
RJ:
Let me be perfectly clear. The Houston Texans are going to win the AFC South. We can all understand that they are undeniably the best team in a group of total misfits.
But the Texans may be the most paper tiger-y team going right now as they just lost to two of the teams that we listed above, and one of them was the Jets!
Houston’s latest blunder came on Sunday night with the world watching as they let the Lions come all the way back against them. All told, Detroit scored 19 unanswered points and anywhere you look among Texans fans the blame is falling squarely at the feet of where they have laid it all season... offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.
I’m not saying that Slowik hasn’t been bad or that he doesn’t deserve to be blamed, but we (rightfully) talked so highly about C.J. Stroud all of last year and into this one. Is the quarterback not to blame for zero second-half points?
And what about the head coach? I recognize that DeMeco Ryans is a fun story and an objectively good coach, but he has also been objectively really bad and poorly prepared in the second halves of games this year. It can’t just be “Slowik sucks” and that’s the end of it.
The Texans aren’t a national name and only enter the conversation when things are going well, but we can treat them with as much logic as we do everyone else.
Michael:
Let’s get this out there right away: In a game where the offense scored 23 points in the first half, it is never solely the coordinator’s fault for the loss. That’s a little over three touchdowns worth of points and is also more than 17 teams average on a per-game basis. It’s very easy to say, “Oh, well, if the offense scores even just one more touchdown/field goal/etc then they probably would have won!”
The thing is, that’s excusing the defense for allowing 19 points in the second half which, if I recall correctly, is the side of the ball that DeMeco Ryans is responsible for.
Still, five interceptions is a lot of takeaways and one would think that would lead to an insurmountable amount of points for Houston. The thing is, CJ Stroud sure did toss multiple interceptions of his own with at least one coming immediately after the second-half kickoff and another coming soon after his team recorded one of their five. Not only were his picks tough to see, they came at times where it obliterated the momentum created by his own defense’s biggest plays.
So TL:DR, yes I absolutely agree that both Ryans and Stroud likely deserve more of the blame here than Slowick does. Ryans needs to find a way to continue making adjustments past halftime and Stroud needs to be smarter with the ball, especially given the situations he needs to capitalize on as opposed to giving the ball right back.
Little things turn into big things and I just don’t think the Texans were focused enough on the little things more than the Lions were in this one.
Has Russell Wilson played his way out of all the jokes and comical rhetoric surrounding the last few years of his career?
Michael:
It seems like Russell Wilson has been known more for his whimsical “Mr. Unlimited” persona over the last few years than he has been for the plays he makes on the football field. This year looked like it was going to be another “dunk on Russ”-type season while he was out due to injury to begin the year, but now that he’s 3-0 as the starter following his return, I think it might be time to put the jokes to bed.
And look, I’ve had fun with it. The internet has had a ton of fun with it, but this man might actually have the Steelers poised to compete for a Super Bowl this year. In his three starts, Russ has thrown for 737 yards with six touchdowns to only one interception. He’s gelling with the team very well and his connection is already stretching to new receiver Mike Williams who caught his first pass as a Steeler for a touchdown on Sunday against the Commanders.
Normally I mourn the times when a good running joke seemingly has run its course, but this time I’m actually kind of happy for Wilson that he’s been able to get back to football being the main thing.
RJ:
I’m with Michael in that it is oddly nice to see Russell Wilson succeeding. The Steelers have a way of making everything look and feel better so it makes sense that him getting to Pittsburgh would be helpful for everybody involved.
It is wild that the Ravens are not running away with the AFC North because Russell is playing so well and keeping Pittsburgh right in that conversation. We are still a long ways from the “let Russ cook” days from his Seattle time, but this is fun to watch!
The success of it all doesn’t make me feel like what happened in Denver was any less Wilson’s fault than we thought it was. I think he just needed a bit of a change of scenery, perhaps some humbling in the process, and that the workmanlike mantra of the Steelers was perfect for him at this point.
Congrats to everyone involved! We like you!
How many coaches would you take over Kevin O’Connell?
RJ:
The Minnesota Vikings aren’t dominating the way that they were earlier in the season and that has caused some people to fall a little bit out of love with them. I think we are still underselling the job that Kevon O’Connell is doing here.
KOC has the Vikings positioned to be a playoff team and is continually making lemonade on a weekly basis with Sam Darnold as his quarterback. I’m convinced that the man could win every single episode of Chopped because he is that good at adjusting on the fly.
So with that said... how many coaches do you think are better than him? This is my list, in no particular order:
- Andy Reid
- Jim Harbaugh (also underrated)
- Mike Tomlin (a push, but I’ll lean Mike)
- Dan Campbell (if you insist)
- Kyle Shanahan
I thought a little bit about including Nick Sirianni, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I also find Sirianni to not get enough credit for what his team is doing, by the way.
But if we really wanted to fight and debate we could make the case that KOC is or is at least pushing Top 5. Give the man his props! And maybe apologize for hating on the 2022 version of his team that nobody was willing to believe in either.
Michael:
As you know I live in Minnesota and watch every Vikings game when they aren’t playing at the same time as the Chargers. It’s been a ton of fun watching Sam Darnold perform well (not so much as of late) under KOC and it only further shows how well he can connect and develop quarterbacks.
As far as coaches I would take over him — and this takes into account their success as a coach plus how great the locker room vibes must be — I think my list would be:
- Mike Tomlin
- John Harbaugh
- Kyle Shanahan
- Andy Reid
- Jim Harbaugh
- Dan Campbell
So essentially your list but I would take the other Harbaugh brother, as well.
All of these guys are winners and there’s truly nothing negative you could really say about any of them as people. They connect to their players, motivate them to play beyond themselves, and are proven winners.
There’s no way Aaron Rodgers isn’t the biggest problem on the Jets, right?
Michael:
I feel like we’ve talked quite a bit about Rodgers on The Skinny Post this season but I guess that’s not surprising given he’s a high-profile quarterback in a major media market that’s wildly failing to live up to the preseason expectations.
I won’t lie, it’s been fun to watch everything melt down.
Rodgers and the Jets have one of the better skill groups in the NFL on offense. Not to mention that multiple players are Rodgers’ “guys” from his time in Green Bay. When things weren’t clicking early on, owner Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh. Since, the defense has been in shambles and even the addition of Davante Adams hasn’t done much to move the needle on offense.
I don’t know how much more we need to see, but it looks like to me that Rodgers is the common denominator here. If the defense was overrated, then Saleh was doing a lot more of the heavy lifting for this team than he was given credit for, as well.
RJ:
To add to this point: Consider that Mike Williams scored a touchdown (a very important one!) in his first game with the Pittsburgh Steelers after having his name dragged through the mud by Rodgers when they were teammates.
It is difficult for something to go in the most opposite direction that a person plans for them to and if that is happening then you are either the Dallas Cowboys or Aaron Rodgers.
Time will help with this, obviously Rodgers has had more of his life off of the field reach the public eye over the last few years, but I really wonder how we look back on Rodgers’ career as a whole as a result of this time.
He is obviously a HOFer and one of the best to ever do it, but I think for a long time people gave him a huge benefit of the doubt. People blamed others like Mike McCarthy for him not winning more championships while in Green Bay... the last few years — certainly his Jets tenure — have proven that he is a huge problem in and of himself.
You hate to see it.
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