The Houston Texans received a big-blow to their offensive line on Sunday with standout left tackle Laremy Tunsil inactive with a shoulder injury. To combat the loss, they rotated backups Roderick Johnson and Chris Clark throughout the win over the Jaguars in London.
Switching between the two tackles wasn’t a matter of riding with the hot hand. Instead, the Texans always planned to do so when they knew Tunsil would not be playing.
“We were going to try to rotate them in there,” said Texans coach Bill O’Brien after the win. “Felt like both guys could help us, neither one had to play the whole game. We felt like once we knew that Tunsil wasn’t going to be able to play, that was the plan.”
Despite the flip-flopping between Johnson and Clark, the Texans won handily (26-3) over Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium.
Quarterback Deshaun Watson received adequate protection all day long and finished with one sack taken — to his credit, he did his fair share of slipping out of tackles. He did so against a pass-rush that entered the game fourth in the NFL in sacks (29).
Watson passed 22 of 28 for 201 yards and two touchdowns to no interceptions behind the offensive line, good for a 120.4 passer rating. It was his career-best performance against Jacksonville.
The run-game was unstoppable, as both Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson had their best games of the season on Sunday. Hyde rushed for 160 yards on 19 attempts. Johnson tallied a rush touchdown on seven carries for 13 yards while also recording five receptions for 68 yards.
Though Johnson and Clark did their job acceptably on Sunday, the Texans won’t have to rely on the two going forward. Tunsil is expected to be fully recovered from his shoulder injury after Houston’s Week 10 bye. Barring an unforeseen change of circumstances, he will be blocking Ravens pass-rushers in Baltimore in Week 11.
