HOUSTON – The Houston Texans are having an intensely disappointing season.
After another blowout loss at home, questions are again prevalent about the Texans play-calling, especially in the run game.
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1st down woes
Ask any Texans fan, and they can give you their frustration with the play-calling. What are the Texans going to do on 1st and 10?
Well, much of the time Houston runs the ball to David Johnson, despite the fact it hasn’t worked all season.
Against the Packers, the Texans ran with Johnson eight times on first down gaining 30 yards.
Johnson broke off a 13-yard scamper on one of the runs. Yet, he only collected 17 yards on the other seven plays.
The Texans averaged 3.8 yards per carry and just 2.4 yards per carry, if you take out the one time the play was successful.
Here are the yardage gains for Johnson on 1st down: 3, 3, 1, 0, 3, 3, 13, 4
Season woes
Entering Sunday, the Texans ranked 31st in rushing yards gained, averaging 85.8 yards per game.
Only the Washington Football team rates lower and WFT picked up 208 yards on the ground in their win over the Cowboys Sunday.
The Texans ran for 79 yards vs. the Packers with David Johnson’s 42 leading the way. Deshaun Watson added 38 yards on scrambles.
The Texans have yet to have any rusher go over 100 yards this season.
What’s next?
The Texans are likely stuck with David Johnson, who is struggling this season while getting paid top running back money ($11.1 million cap hit).
Backup running back Duke Johnson is also getting paid quite a bit for his role, making $4.1 million this season.
David Johnson can be cut without losing any money in 2021, but would make $5.1 million if kept.
Duke Johnson could be a possible trade candidate for Houston, but the Texans don’t have much in the way of development behind the Johnsons.