Postgame thoughts about the Texans right now

This game was brutal. The Texans always seem to find new creative heartbreaking ways to lose. I'm proud of how we played and the Titans are really good, but we really should have won this one.

Here are some initial postgame thoughts:

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– The offense is really coming together. Before the season, I was drooling over the mismatches our 4 WR sets could create for Deshaun Watson and they're finally looking like the explosive unit we envisioned. Things are really opening up for the Tight ends and in general it seems like things are really easy for Deshaun right now. Lots of really open guys for pitch and catch chunk yardage plays

– Our Oline is doing a really good job in pass protection (Tunsil is completely dominating) but they're continuing to suck against the run. Our interior guys can't beat anyone decent off the ball and it continues to be far too difficult for us to execute on the ground in short yardage. For the entirety of the Deshaun Watson era we haven't been able to consistently win short yardage running plays and with David Johnson it's as bad as it's ever been. Deshaun was able to make some big time 4th and goal plays today but it's not sustainable long-term. Just punch the damn ball in

– This is going to be controversial, but I don't think we miss Hopkins much at all. Cooks and Cobb pair really well with Fuller and Deshaun has more options than ever before. We should have gotten more in return for DHop, but I see what BoB was trying to create offensively and I think it's working.

– David Johnson needs to GTFO, but I really want Brandin Cooks to be with the team next year. He makes big time plays and Deshaun and him are clicking.

– It seems that Randall Cobb has beaten out Kenny Stills for WR3. He seems to be getting open a lot and Deshaun trusts him. I think Kenny is a great guy and still can contribute for us going forward, but we should probably shop him. Could probably get a 4th or 5th.

– Will Fuller had another great game. I don't know if we're going to be able to keep him. We should try and sign him to a modest extension right now and see if he bites. Something like 4yr 55m. If he stays healthy the rest of the year with the type of production he's having I don't think we'll be able to win a bidding war. I'd hate to lose him, but if he won't resign now we should strongly consider shopping him. Could probably get a 2nd, maybe even a 1st if a contending team desperately needs a WR

– David Johnson is below average at best. He's not the worst starting RB in the league, but he's probably bottom 5. Never breaks tackles or falls forward and regularly misses holes. I still think we could be using him a bit more in the passing game, but honestly whatever. Carlos Hyde and Lamar Miller were each better than him. Lets give Duke Johnson more carries, f**k it. No chance David is on the team next year

– Deshaun Watson deserves better. In all 5 games where Deshaun gave the Texans the lead with under 2 mins with masterful performances against prominent teams, the Texans defense failed to make a stop every time. The 2017 Seahawks and Patriots games, 2018 Eagles, 2019 Saints and now 2020 Titans. What makes it worse, is that all Texans fans knew exactly what was going to happen before it did. Deshaun deserves to win these games, not be 0-5 in them.

– Tyrell Adams has played really well the past 2 games. This is probably Benardrick Mckinneys last year as a Texan

– Zach Cunningham has regressed an insane amount. Idk if he's been working less hard after getting paid, or if COVID practices are not preparing him the same way, but he's been awful all year and this was prob his worst game. He's making wayyy too much money to miss tackles like the Jonnu Smith 3rd down one. He's also straight up misreading plays and committing the wrong way on a lot of runs. PFF had him as a bottom 5 Linebacker coming into the game and I doubt his season grade improved at all after this game

– Glad JJ Watt had a big game. His sack fumble was probably the defensive play of the year so far for us (sad). Bradley Roby has also been really good this year, glad he got his first pick. So far Roby's 3yr/36m deal looks really good. Still crazy Mercilus makes more.

– Our interior Dline blows. Blows my fucking mind that we paid Mercilus instead of Reader. Saw that Blacklock had a tackle this game, but it was completely asinine for us to think we could replace Reader with a 2nd round DT in the short term. We get absolutely gashed when teams run at anyone besides JJ. For the most part the linebackers have failed to clean up the run and it's resulting in what's tracking to be the worst run defense in franchise history

– Its super annoying how good Ryan Tannehill is. I hate how composed he is in the pocket and on big downs. He gutted us on 3rd down in the first half and executed perfectly in the game tying drive. The Titans have a franchise, pro-bowl caliber QB and will for a long time.

– Derrick Henry is also one of the top 5 best offensive players in the NFL and the Titans locked him up for a really reasonable amount (I think about $5m less annual than CMac and Zeke)

– One of the things that makes our 1-5 start so frustrating is that we've been extremely fortunate injury wise thus far. Outside of Jordin Akins, B-Mac and the training camp injury to Gareon Conley, we haven't had a single starter or rotational player hurt (knock on fucking wood). It sucks we weren't able to pull out the Vikings, Steelers or Titans games as at 2-4 with the way our offense is clicking I really think we would have been able to make a playoff push (especially with 7 teams now getting in). At 1-5 its probably near impossible. We'd have to go 8-2 the rest of the way to have a realistic chance

– The biggest problem areas for the team to address this offseason are OG/DLine and RB. Might be able to find guys relatively cheap or later in the draft who can make a difference.

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I'm excited for the future with Deshaun, but we really need a coach who can instill a winning culture. For the Texans entire existence they've had a "Murphys law" mentality where they expect that anything that can go wrong late in games will against good teams.