The Houston Texans notched their second win of the preseason with a 20-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night at AT&T Stadium.
A win is a win, but preseason games, regardless of what the scoreboard says, invite further scrutiny of the rest of the performance. Teams aren’t going to play levels of their depth chart during regular season games as they do in the preseason.
One disturbing figure to come out of the Texans’ victory was their 0-10 mark on third down against the Cowboys.
Coach David Culley met with reporters after the game, and admitted he needed to look at game film just to make sure, but his initial hunch was the Cowboys’ blitz affected them on third downs.
“We got a few more blitzes than what we got in the first game,” said Culley. “We knew that could possibly happen, and I think it disrupted us a little bit, but for the most part, it’s going to be that way. We’ll get better at that.”
Rookie quarterback Davis Mills, who completed 10-of-16 for 115 yards, appreciated the blitzes from Dallas as it will help them get better at facing the blitz.
“That gives us a ton of really good practice for moving forward going into the season,” Mills said. “Communicating with the line and protection, just making sure we are on top of everything. I think, like I said, seeing some different things different ways. I think Dallas mixed it up a little bit, but I think we can still just go out there and execute, do our jobs.”
According to Culley, typically struggles with the blitz pickup go back to a player not following through on an assignment.
Said Culley: “When we go back and watch the video and see what needed to be done, it usually goes back to somebody not doing their job and not doing what they needed to do.”
What did help the Texans offset their third down struggles were their four takeaways. However, if Houston could avoid such third down struggles and work to protect against the blitz better, it should give them an edge against any opponent on their schedule.
