I’m watching the game back. The blame truly does go around.

First of all, let me say that the Texans/Mills actually recover from missed opportunities very well. What I mean is that they'll have a negative or neutral play on an early down and then Pierce will gash the defense for a chunk or Mills will make a completion to cut the down and distance. However it's clearly not consistent or good enough yet. Here's some things I've noticed (ps I'm kind of doing this by memory so i may be meshing things):

Drive 1: DP didn't turn around for the screen in time so Mills threw it in the dirt. They recovered with a nice DP run to get to 3rd and short. But then they left an unblocked edge defender (by play design, make of that what you will) and he was in the backfield before DP got the ball. DP wanted to make a move but slipped instead.

Drive 2: Whoever tells you the OL played fine LIED. They absolutely did not at CRUCIAL MOMENTS. On one play in the red zone, Quessenberry got tossed like a rag doll, allowing instant pressure. On a 3rd and 5, Green got put in the mixer by a spin move and allowed pressure in Mills space really quickly. However I don't think the blame stops there, as Mills didn't even plant his feet which led to a throw that was out of Burkheads range. If it's a more talented receiving back then maybe that's a TD (nice play call and nice read but bad execution imo) but Mills needs to either plant his feet and make a more accurate throw or roll outside the pocket where Tunsil was giving excellent protection and then make a throw. Either way if Mills wants to be the guy he has to learn to do one of the 2. Very difficult but it's the NFL and there's always a guy that can do it.

And backing up a bit, there are 2 things also worth noting. 1. Mills and Brown being out of sync on a play that would have been a first down. I don't know if it was just an overthrow or not being on the same page but I'm inclined to believe this one was of the latter.

1. Mills is paranoid af. He clearly doesn't trust his protection yet. There's 2 plays in thinking of, one where DP picked up a blitzer but Mills threw the ball way before he had to anyways and another where again the play design left an edge blocker unblocked (it was a play action) so there was a free rusher until Green picked him up. However Mills still panicked and threw the ball.

It's not all bad news though as I said, they were able to recover from a lot of those types of plays but they happen TOO OFTEN for reliability. The OL needs to be more consistent and Mills can't be too paranoid (although to be fair when he has trusted them, they still let him get sacked/hit so again not entirely his fault).

Now to address this idea that Mills is regressing to a one read QB. NOT TRUE. First of all I saw 2 types of scenarios with the way Mills reads.

1. This is the case where I think people are attributing him to only reading 1 guy. Mills identifies an option, many times his first read, he knows that they are going to be running to an open space later in that route. However, it's not always a route he can throw to immediately with anticipation, sometimes he has to hold the ball as he waits for his guy to get open or hit a point in the route where Mills can anticipate. However this can be a problem if the OL isn't holding up because Mills does not yet have the pocket presence to accommodate. Now you can see where problems are compounding. Let's take the Cooks drop for an example. Mills knew cooks was running a route that would be open but he can't just throw it immediately. He had to wait a bit before throwing it. It's his first read and the right read. However there was a WR completely wide open on the other side of the play. Not his first read though so not really Mills' fault. But people will still call him a 1 read QB because the play didn't work. Or sometimes Mills is just wrong about his WR getting open and he forces it. There's a few of those to be fair and unbiased but they're not all to Cooks. I saw him try to force one to Collins instead of a wide open Moore.

2. He actually does go through his full progressions just fine and people are just ignoring it for a narrative. I'm literally watching the guys head and eyes progress through his reads. Stop telling me he's not doing it. Maybe a bit faster, sure, but he's doing it.

So plenty of blame to go around here and I don't agree that pass pro was just fine but I do agree that Mills needs to still make the play because it's still enough for him to play better than he is.

PS he can make sideline throws, as per his first completion of the game. He just needs to stop rushing it.

Summary- DP had some slip ups drive 1, the OL constantly let Mills down to the point where he's paranoid and rushes throws, Mills still needs to play better despite the OL play because that's what NFL starting QBs do. And on a positive note, the Texans offense does a good job at recovering yardage from failed plays in early downs- they just need to reduce the amount of failed attempts.