NFL Week 3: Vikings 34, Texans 7 — Four Winners, Four Losers

While the Houston Texans are the newest team in the National Football League, underway in their 23rd NFL season, they’re building up a sample size of enough seasons, and enough trees with each opponent to set your watch to a few things. Crazy enough, the one trend with the Texans that has been a stone cold lock since inception is (a) losing to the Minnesota Vikings, and (b) not really showing up at all early in doing so.

For the sixth time in the history of the Texans’ franchise, they lost to the Minnesota Vikings, against no wins. Also, for the sixth time, they trailed the Vikings at halftime by double digits, this year, a 14-0 score, ultimately leading to a 34-7 thrashing at the hands of Sam Darnold (yes, you heard me, SAM DARNOLD) and the Vikings.

It was a heaping serving of humble pie dished out to the Texans, who had risen to among the top five teams in the league, according to most of the NFL power rankings. They had a lot of the same mistakes they’d made against the Colts and particularly the Bears the first two weeks, but this time it was in a venue and against a team that could take advantage.

Let’s get into winners and losers, and get this over with:

WINNERS

4. Jon Greenard
Spoiler alert — there will be very little Texans representation in the “WINNERS” section of this article. After all, they lost by 27 in a game where they scored one touchdown. So I’ll start with representation from one of the many FORMER Texans playing in this game — edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, who had a career high 12.5 sacks for the Texans last season. Greenard had three sacks on Sunday, as well as three tackles for loss. For some reason, the Texans tried blocking him with a tight end several times. Not smart. Good to see Greenard, one of the good guys, thriving.

3. Tim Settle
This will be the only Houston Texan listed as a winner. Defensive tackle Tim Settle, one of several veteran journeymen on the interior of the defensive line signed this past offseason, had a couple sacks of Sam Darnold on Sunday afternoon. After being injured for nearly all of training camp, I was unsure if Settle would make the team, so it was nice to see him finding a way to make an impact while it was still a game on Sunday.

2. Sam Darnold
Nobody has been more critical of Darnold throughout his NFL journey than I have been. I thought, coming out of USC in 2018, that he was overrated, and for the better part of the last six years, it’s looked like I was right. However, Darnold is off to a fantastic start this season, with a win over his former team (the Niners) in Week 2, and Sunday’s rout of the Texans. Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell doesn’t put the weight of the world on Darnold, but his arm talent allows him to make all the throws required to maximize this system.

1. Brian Flores
Finally, the last winner is Flores, the Vikings defensive coordinator, who was a finalist for the Texans’ head coaching job in 2022, the job that eventually went to Lovie Smith. That whole sequence of events got the Texans added to Flores’ discrimination lawsuit, along with the league office and several other individual teams. One thing we know about Flores — he is a very good defensive coordinator, and Texan OC Bobby Slowik had no answers for the chaos that Flores what throwing his way.

LOSERS

4. DeMeco Ryans
Look, I am thrilled that Ryans is the Texans’ head coach. I think he’s awesome, and I think he will be the one that gets us to the promised land. However, there is no dancing around it — his team was not ready to play on Sunday. Furthermore, as the defensive play caller, Ryans spent the whole first half plying some curious tactics in trying to shut down the Vikings only superstar threat, wide receiver Justin Jefferson. Even the good ones have bad days.

3. Dalton Schultz
Schultz got a $36 million contract this past offseason, and through three games, he has seven catches for 48 yards. Additionally, he struggled badly as a blocker on Sunday. I get that there are a lot of mouths to feed, but Schultz going practically invisible for three games has been disturbing.

2. C.J. Stroud
I put Stroud here, not because of his performance (which wasn’t great, but certainly not “loser” worthy), but because he is getting his ass kicked by opposing pass rushes early on this season. Per D.J. Bien Hime of ESPN, Stroud was pressured 17 times on Sunday afternoon, 44.7 percent of the time, and was sacked four times. He is on pace to be sacked 56 times. With numbers like that, it’s tough to envision him playing 17 games this season, if that holds up.

1. Laremy Tunsil
I think this is the most heated I’ve seen the Texans fan base at an individual non-quarterback player in my decade of covering the team for SpotsRadio 610. After today’s “performance,” in which Tunsil expanded his NFL lead in the “penalties committed” category (he has 10, next closest has 5), Texan fans want some accountability doled out by the coaching staff. The stretch in the first half of yesterday’s game was particularly galling. Here were Tunsil’s four first half penalties:

False Start — 1st-10, MIN 45, 8:28 left in Q1
This was the Texans’ second possession of the game, after the Vikings went up 7-0, and Tunsil’s penalty came after two quick first downs by the offense. The Texans’ drive would end with Ka’imi Fairbairn’s first missed field goal of the season.

Illegal Formation — 3rd-7, HOU 33, 0:37 left in Q1
This penalty nullified a 16 yard catch by WR Xavier Hutchinson that would have given the Texans a 1st and 10 at midfield. Instead, 3rd and 7 became 3rd and 12, and the Texans punted two plays later.

False Start — 3rd-14, MIN 35, 9:10 left in Q2
This was the third of three straight false starts by the Texans offensive line. A series that was 3rd and 4, well inside field goal range, eventually, because of Tunsil, became a punt. Tunsil actually committed another penalty non 3rd and 19, but the Vikings declined the penalty.

Illegal Formation — 3rd-10, HOU 40, 2:26 left in Q2
Finally, this penalty nullified a 17 yard catch by Tank Dell that would have given the Texans a 1st and 10 in Minnesota territory. Instead, this drive ended with, you guessed it, a punt.

Basically, what I’m saying is we are all Andre Ware:

Andre Ware was so upset on the radio broadcast after Laremy Tunsil’s first false start of the game 😂 pic.twitter.com/rajIqXWDDj

— Figgy Fig (@TheFiggyFig) September 22, 2024

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.