Texans Haunted By Mistakes
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HOUSTON — The Houston Texans have a three-game losing streak. They lost by three in overtime at Dallas, by five at home to Indianapolis and by seven at Pittsburgh.
The Texans were in position to win all three games, but they blew each one with physical mistakes and mental blunders.
If they win at Tennessee on Sunday, they’ll finish the first half of the season with a 4-4 record. That’s what they are — average.
The Texans have enough talent to compete with the better teams, but they don’t play smart enough or well enough from start to finish.
The Texans are their worst enemy. The mistakes are being committed by players and coaches.
For instance, the notorious slow starters scored on a 94-yard drive to lead Pittsburgh 7-0. Then they kicked two field goals to make it 13-0.
Their defense stopped running back Le’Veon Bell, collapsed on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and ran Arian Foster well enough to force defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau to make several adjustments before he
found one that worked.
That was in the first half. The Texans led 13-3 after a Pittsburgh field goal with 3:08 left in the first half.
Then Pittsburgh scored two touchdowns and a field goal to take a 24-13 lead, and there was time still left on the clock before halftime.
“It’s frustrating,” coach Bill O’Brien said. “We’re all frustrated. But I have a strong belief in this team. I believe if we can get this thing headed in the right direction — eliminate turnovers and penalties and not give up big plays on defense — you’ll see a winning team.”
The Texans should be blasted for their second-quarter meltdown but praised for rallying to come within an onside kick of possibly tying the game and forcing overtime.
In the end, they committed three turnovers — fumbles by Arian Foster and DeAndre Hopkins and a Ryan Fitzpatrick interception — that Pittsburgh turned into 17 points.
They also made mental mistakes that left them with bad field position or allowed the Steelers to score easily.
“The two areas that we have to do a better job at?” O’Brien said. “We’ve got to stop turning the ball over, and we’ve got to eliminate the line- of-scrimmage penalties — too many men on the field, offsides, a false start on offense. We can control that, so we have to make sure that we’re correcting it.”
The Texans have been undisciplined at the worst times, but they have also shown mental toughness. It’s kept them in every game but the 30-17 loss at the New York Giants, but Arian Foster didn’t play in that game.
“A team that wasn’t mentally tough would really go in the tank in that situation,” O’Brien said about the collapse in Pittsburgh. “The mentally tough teams that I’ve been around were the ones that fought back and regrouped at halftime.
“Still, we didn’t come out and play our best in the second half, but we certainly showed up in the second half, only giving up two field goals on defense. We did some good things to finally get the game within reach. That’s the sign of a mentally tough team.”
