The Houston Texans’ offense has been heavily observed, scrutinized, and praised throughout this season, with first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley calling the plays alongside Cole Popovich, who is also serving in his first year as offensive line coach.
The team got off to a horrendous 0-3 start, putting head coach DeMeco Ryans at the podium every week to answer for the lackluster performances.
But he still believed that once they were all on the same page, they would be better, as he quoted the famous and most-used quote of professional athletes and coaches.
“We will take it one week and one game at a time and go from there,” Ryans said after every loss to start the season.
As the defense continued to flourish, something funny happened with the offense. They became consistent. Not so much in scoring points, as they still struggle with red-zone opportunities, but by becoming more efficient with their offensive drives, which allowed the defense to rest.
During their six-game winning streak, the Texans’ offense has averaged over 31 minutes of time of possession, while their defense has limited opponents to under 30 minutes during that span.
Houston has had eight drives of 10 or more plays, averaging 6 minutes per drive.
They are currently third in the NFL in time of possession (32:11) behind the Buffalo Bills (33:14) and the Los Angeles Chargers (33:02).
“It’s always a hyper-focused mentality to be locked in, one snap at a time,” said Ryans when asked about how the offense can stay consistent. “Sometimes you may be thinking about another snap or a certain look you got in practice, and you may be trying to anticipate a play. You may be trying to anticipate what the defense is doing based on their structure that they’re presenting. Are they going to stunt? Are they going to move? You maybe lose sight of some small things. You forget to communicate in the moment.
“You have long drives where guys get tired, they get winded. When you get tired, the first thing that goes is sometimes your mind. You have to really, reel it back in. You have to find a way to truly take some deep breaths, focus in on one snap at a time.”
With the Las Vegas Raiders (2-12) set to come for a late afternoon matchup (3:25 p.m. CST) with the Texans at NRG Stadium on Sunday, Houston plans to continue to build on its offensive consistency, especially from the quarterback position with C.J. Stroud performing at a higher level since his return from a concussion he sustained over a month ago against the Denver Broncos. Stroud has thrown for 739 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in his last three games.
“I think we’re starting to roll at the right time,” Stroud said on Wednesday. “December is when you want to play your best ball, and every game is important, and every game is hard.”
Last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Raiders allowed four drives of 10 or more plays that averaged 7:66 minutes, which led head coach Pete Carroll to address his defensive woes ahead of the game with Houston.
“Yeah, well, there’s a number that’s really telling here, and it’s third-and-ones and twos, and the number of them, we’ve had more than anybody in the NFL by a bit,” said Carroll. “So, that opportunity to get – and we’re basically average in getting off the field in those situations, but we just had too many of them.”