Texans 2017-2018 Season Recap

by Dirty-Chan1 | 7 years ago | 1 Comments

Houston Texans 2017-2018 Season Recap:

In a season with high hopes falling short of the ultimate goal, a championship, the team and city of Houston can hang their hats on a lot of things the team did well at. 

For starters, the obvious, quarterback Deshaun Watson had a very good start to his NFL career. He piled up a total of 5,691 (5,025 passing/666 rushing) yards and a TOTAL of 47 (37 passing/10 rushing) touchdowns, with a passer rating at a ridiculous 131.6 and only 12 INT’s through 15 games, earning him OROY/OPOY awards and a Pro Bowl appearance in his first year. With many nods at the league MVP it makes you wonder if anything would be different had he not been suspended a game. Just goes to show, even with carrying a team, he’s still a rookie and has to learn still. 

Another bright spot on the team was superstar wide receiver Deandre Hopkins who’s pro bowl season ended with 91 catches (3rd in NFL) 1,918 yards (3rd in NFL) and 20 touchdowns (2nd in NFL). With injuries all over the Texans offense, “DHop” really stepped up for his rookie QB with one of the highest usage rates in the NFL at wide receiver. With over 54% of Deshaun’s passing touchdowns and 37% of Deshaun’s passing yards, it’s exciting to see what the future holds for this dynamic duo. 

With these two really carrying the load for the team and ultimately getting them to the playoffs, a few more bright spots stood out, including: running back Lamar Miller who had 1,062 yards on only 175 carries (6.1 avg YPC). Lamar understood his role and still shined with what he was given. Will Fuller was a bright spot as well, when healthy. He spent most of his sophomore campaign injured but was prouductive when on the field hauling in 772 yards on ONLY 29 catches (6 were touchdowns). 

Major things this team needs to fix-

What the hell happened to this defense? A feared unit in the past that seemingly every year of Coach Chan’s career was top 5 overall in defensive yards, always top 3 in interceptions and top 3 in points allowed, saw its defensive unit 15th in total yards,15th in interceptions and 9th in points allowed! If not for being 4th in sacks (79) this defense would be average at best. With efforts last cycle and the one before that saw historic interception numbers made, including over 100 interceptions made with McKinney in 5 seasons, the most one defender could muster up this season was 8 by rookie MLB Zach Cunningham, who if not injured for 6 games would have been a sure fire pro bowler with 66 tackles (5 tfl), 7.5 sacks and 8 INTs. Needing to have the same efforts again next season are defensive ends J.J Watt and Whitney Mercilus, who produced 27 combined sacks and 28 tackles for loss. Needing to step up next season is defensive end Jadeveon Clowney (only 9.5 sacks) and the ENTIRE secondary.  

Another issue that needs to be addressed is quarterback protection and holding on to the football. Deshaun Watson was under duress all season long getting sacked a whopping 75 times! Watson needs to be able to recognize blitzes next season along with an absolute remodeling of the Oline as well. Now on to the most frustrating point of emphasis for fans and Texan’s coaches alike, fumbling. It’s not even the lousy top 10 ranking in fumbles lost, its the timing of when they occurred. Yes this offense is legit and can score points, but wow they left a ridiculous amount of points on the board because of fumbling in the red zone (i.e the divisional playoff game against the Browns that was played recently saw the Texans fumbling FOUR TIMES IN THE RED ZONE). This issue must be fixed for next season. 

Overall, a lackluster 12-4 season and 1-1 in the playoffs with a coach and organization that demands more than that will certainly get its act together come next season with major holes being hopefully filled in the secondary and offensive line. Lead by young stars, the future is bright in Houston though.