The Texans suit up to play the Bengals tomorrow night on Thursday Night Football, and a new face is starting under QB. Deshaun Watson will make his first official start according to sources, which has now been confirmed by many beat writers in the national media. Bill O’Brien wanted to keep it secret to allow the Bengals to prepare for two QB’s and not one.
Last Sunday was a disaster. Bill knows it, and so did the rest of the team. Their comments about the game and how they are passed it and fully focused on Cincinnati says a lot. They know they didn’t perform well, they know they need to do a better job in order to be taken seriously again. I’m ready to forget about week one, the fans sure are, and the team looks to be as well. So, let’s treat this like the first game of the season. The offense needs to be able to run smoothly and at least block a little better to allow Watson to have time to throw, or scramble to extend a play. We saw on Sunday that Watson was 11-12 on play action throws, and posted a QBR of over 130. That is a GREAT stat to have, and the offense needs to adapt to his playstyle to make this team run better. I’m sure O’Brien has the right playbook to match Watson, but wasn’t fully set due to game 1. I’m sure this game we will see many more play actions to support Watson’s strengths and play more of a stretch offense to recreate the college offense to get Watson situated for now. Watson will have no problem tomorrow as long as the run game is there.
The defense will need some improvement as well. Many plays were not able to be stopped, and they made Blake Bortles seem like a competent QB. This is something that Blake has never been able to do against the Texans defense. He is always bullied, and usually gets picked off. There were none on Sunday. The defense couldn’t stop the run, and due to this, most stacked up front to try to stop it, leaving the field a little more open for his WR’s to work with. The defense will need to prepare for Andy Dalton, who can throw, but also has the ability to be an inaccurate QB as shown on Sunday from him as well. This should be a matchup the Texans won’t have to worry about smash mouth RB plays, so I don’t expect it to be as bad. I also didn’t expect it to be bad on Sunday, so we shall see.
Tune in tomorrow for the game, and keep it here for the latest updates on your favorite Houston Sports Teams.
