Texans put up a good fight and didn’t embarrass themselves today. But ultimately they didn’t get the job done. Another year another second round playoff exit in the DeMeco Ryans era.
What went well:
1) Running game: The Texans were able to run the ball at will against the Chiefs. 150 total yards rushing basically all in the first three quarters.
2) Super Bowl Caliber Defense: This defense got us into the dance and kept the team within reach throughout. They are a championship caliber defense and all core players are scheduled to return next season. Very encouraging going forward.
3) C.J. is Playoff Tough: My goodness he sold out his body for the team repeatedly. He gave it everything he had today. He made some mistakes but he is my QB! What a warrior.
What did not go well:
1) Special Teams: Frank Ross, why hath thou forsaken me?! Our elite special teams unit failed in all phases. Aside from Robert Woods’ heads up play to force a touchback every ST play seemed to prove costly. We had missed FGs, missed extra point, blocked FGs, long return with penalty add-on, bad punt… Too many times the Chiefs got the ball on a short field. You can’t give them that many opportunities, it was like giving them turnovers.
2) Inexperience: Just gonna make this a catch-all for some of the decision making. The decision to go for the 55 yard Fg against the wind instead of playing field position, rushing a 4th down attempt after making the call late, not making adjustments and allowing the future HOF TE to run free, going away from the run game too early and allowing the Chiefs to exploit the Texans’ leaky pass protection…. I chalk all those up to inexperience. The Texans played the most experienced playoff football team in the league. The majority of these players are on their 4th playoff game. Chiefs are onto their 7th consecutive AFC championship. That inexperience was glaring in the 4th quarter when they kept staying a step ahead of the Texans.
3) Pass Protection: Spags found the leak on the right side of the Texans OL and exploited it when the Texans abandoned the run game in the 4th quarter. Particularly getting matchups against Dalton Schultz. A banana peel would be more effective than Schultz in pass blocking.