The Houston Texans dropped their home opener to the Baltimore Ravens 33-16 to fall to 0-2 for the first time since 2018 and the third time since 2014 when Bill O’Brien took over as coach.
Receiver Randall Cobb has never been a part of an 0-2 team. In fact, the only coach he played for that started 0-2 was Mike McCarthy in Green Bay, and that was six seasons before the Packers selected Cobb in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft.
Cobb doesn’t need to have a common frame of reference to know how the Texans are going to dig themselves out of the hole.
“Find a way to win,” Cobb said. “At the end of the day, that’s all it’s about is finding a way to get a win. You look at tonight’s game, again, we start off slow, put yourself in a hole and try to dig our way out. It was a tough sled there at the end and we’ve got to find a way to get a victory. That’s what it comes down to.”
Cobb did his best to help the Texans compete against the Ravens with five catches for 59 yards on six targets, though Brandin Cooks had the better performance among Houston receivers with five catches for 95 yards on eight targets.
“We’ve got some players,” said Cobb. “We’ve got some guys that fight. Offensively, we’ve got weapons. We’ve got to find a way to get the ball in our weapons’ hands and continue to move the ball on third down and pick up first downs and put ourselves in good situations. I think we moved the ball really well whenever we got the ball out of [quarterback] Deshaun’s (Watson) hands fast and let us make some plays.
Cobb saw one area where the Texans were able to keep pace with the Ravens before the turnovers killed Houston and forced them to play catch-up with Baltimore for the entire second half.
Said Cobb: “We got the running game going there early on, and then we got behind, so we had to start passing the ball. So, I think it’s just about getting us in good situations where you let your playmakers make plays for you.”
David Johnson ha 11 carries for 34 yards, and Watson rushed five times for 17 yards. Houston had to get away from the run game as the Ravens began to run away with the game.
If the Texans can control the tempo of their future games, they should be able to crack the goose egg in the win column.
