That was a great football game – we’re just scratching the surface

That was the most physical and intense football game the Texans have been a part of since 2019.

It sucks we lost, but we played at a B- level. This team is fighting their young asses off and I'm pumped for the future. Below are some of my thoughts:

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– CJ's clutch and cold-blooded. In his first career opportunity to lead a game winning drive he stepped up and executed fucking flawlessly. Every opportunity Davis Mills had to lead a game winning/tying drive in the past 2 years he completely s**t the bed (besides the JAX game last year where Dameon did everything).

– In general CJ's executed all his end of half scoring drive opportunities great. Led a FG drive end of half against Baltimore, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and ATL. We would have scored a TD at the end of half yesterday if we had like 15 seconds more on the clock or more timeouts

– Our oline looked fucking great in pass protection and CJ had a lot of time to throw. Laremy completely locked down his blindside and I think the additional time to go through his progressions actually caused CJ to be slightly more tentative as he didnt have to always get rid of the ball to his first option immediately

– We missed Tank a lot in the 2nd half. Tank is a fucking stud and made a bigtime catch that led to a FG at the end of the first half. They were doubling Nico all game and Tank was carving them up and opening things up for Robert Woods. Hopefully he's good to go next week

– Dalton Schultz had his best game as a Texan and is starting to emerge as a big time weapon for us. CJ hit him on multiple beautiful throws over ATLs linebackers. With the amount of attention our WR's command he's going to be A LOT for defenses to handle (if only he blocked better)

– Dameon is still a good player, but he seems noticeably less powerful than last season. Pretty much every game last year he had multiple jaw-dropping runs where he broke tackles and trucked players. We haven't really seen any of that from him yet this year. Hopefully his numbers will continue improving as the line gets healthier. Singletary prob should have gotten a few carries as well

– CJ is really good. Like really good. He didnt play that well yesterday and wasnt as pinpoint accurate as he had been, but the dude still made numerous BIG TIME perfect throws and stepped up when it mattered most in his 5th career game against a tough opponent on the road lol

– We prob tried to establish the run too much in the 2nd half, but hindsight is always 20/20. Its easy to say we would have scored more if we threw more, but we dont know that for sure. It's important to maintain balance and if we can get the run game going itll only open things up more for CJ and the offense going forward

– No turnovers or sacks once again…extremely impressive on the road against a good D

– Jalen Pitre is back and balled out. Him and Jimmy are def a top 10 safety duo, maybe even top 5

– To'oto'o was a phenomenal draft pick. Hes playing really well

– The front 7 played their best game of the year against the run. ATL has a phyiscal oline anchored by the best guard in the game (Chris Lindstrom) and a top 3 RB in Bijan so this was really impressive. We're finally seeing what we expected from Rankins/Collins

– We didnt get any sacks, but the pass rush overall was solid. We got consistent pressure and won a lot. Dez honestly played really well and made a bunch of quick laser precision throws that a lot of QBs wouldnt have made

– The 2 turnovers we forced were a testament to #Swarm and show our defenses nastiness. Sucks we only got 3 points off them, but the D stepped up here

– We were playing with our 3rd string CB and 3rd string nickel, which def contributed to Dez's big game. Nothing egregious happened until the last drive of the game, but we def missed Shaquille Griffin and Tavierre Thomas. If Sting was healthy this secondary would be NASTY

– Steven Nelson got mossed on a crazy throw/catch at the end, but he's a baller and we need to extend him before season ends

– Blake Cashman is a baller and needs to keep playing a lot, even when Christian Harris returns

– Kaimi is a top 10 kicker in the league and it was good getting our punter back. Our Special Teams are a big asset

– Desmond Ridder played the best game of his career and the Falcons are genuinely good team. Losing a battle like this at the last second on the road stings, but we have a lot to be proud of and excited about

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