NFL Week 7: Packers 24, Texans 22 — Four Winners, Four Losers

In four of the Houston Texans’ five wins this season, the team won the game (or held off their opponent, in a couple cases) late in the fourth quarter. Those four wins had largely been been games where Texans mistakes allowed teams to hang around, but in the end, head coach DeMeco Ryans could lean on the “We’re just happy to win the game!” stance.

On Sunday afternoon, the Texans’ stretch of recent success in close games came to an unfortunate end in Green Bay, as a late field goal by new Packer kicker Brandon McManus gave the Packers a 24-22 win, in a game that the Texans were honestly fortunate to be as close as they were to victory. The offensive line for this team is bad right now, and might get C.J. Stroud killed by the bye week. More on them in a moment.

Additionally, the Texans won the turnover battle in this game by a +3 margin. Since 2010, teams that win the turnover battle by a +3 margin win their games 94 percent of the time (614-38). In other words, you need a lot of stuff to go wrong to lose a game where you want eh turnover margin by three or more. The Texans had a lot of stuff go wrong.

Let’s start with that went right, though:

WINNERS

4. Neville Hewitt
The big concern coming into this game for the Texans was the depleted defense. Five starters were out Sunday with either suspension or injury, including the team’s top two linebackers (top three, if you include the injured reserve list resident Christian Harris). Hewitt was outstanding in this game. Outside of a boneheaded penalty for unnecessary roughness in the first half, Hewitt was largely very, very good, with an early interception to set up the first points of the game, nine tackles, and a pass deflection on the Packers’ final drive that almost led to an Eric Murray game-clinching pick. Hewitt and Jake Hansen were not an issue for the Texans on Sunday.

3. Nico Collins
I know you’re saying “Sean, what do you mean? Nico is on injured reserve!” Exactly, and look at the Texans’ passing offense the last two weeks — 176 yards against the Patriots and a meager 55 yards on Sunday, when you factor in sack yardage allowed. Most of this is on the offensive line, but clearly C.J. Stroud is missing his favorite target. Get well soon, Nico!

2. Calen Bullock
For the third time this season, the rookie safety out of USC came away with an interception, and this one was the most impressive of the three:

LITERALLY WHAT!!!! 3RD INT OF THE SEASON FOR CALEN 🤯

📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/Ytb3PoDxKe

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) October 20, 2024

Bullock getting some of Jimmie Ward’s snaps is ultimately a good thing long term for the Texans, but Bullock is making sure it’s a good thing in the short term, as well.

1. Joe Mixon
C.J. Stroud is the most important player on the Houston Texans, but in the three games where Mixon has been fully healthy and available this season, he’s been the Most Valuable Player of this team. He changes the look of the running game. On the rare occasions where the Texans were moving the ball with any consistency on Sunday, it was behind Mixon and his energetic, physical running style. The same offensive line that nearly got Stroud killed on Sunday was the same one blocking for Mixon, so I refuse to give equal credit to the offensive line. Mixon gets the lion’s share of love for his big day on Sunday.

LOSERS

4. DeMeco Ryans’ game management
DeMeco Ryans, Texans’ de facto defensive coordinator, had an excellent day on Sunday. The Texans’ defense, undermanned as it was, did its job. DeMeco Ryans, Texans’ head coach and maker of decisions, had a rough day. There was the Packers’ potential lateral-fumble that was called an incomplete pass in the first half. Ryans probably should have thrown the challenge flag on that one. Ryans’ game management on the Texans’ final possession made no sense.

To refresh, the Texans had the ball 1st and 10 at the Green Bay 12 yard line, coming out of the two minute warning. The Packers had all three of their timeouts. The Texans ran two unsuccessful run plays up the middle, a clear message they were (a) settling for a field goal and (b) trying to get the Packers time out satchel emptied. I already have an issue with the strategy, even before third down, given that settling for a field goal with that much time remaining is VERY risky. That said, on third down, the Texans should run something that (a) gets the Packers to burn a timeout, or (b) gives you a chance to score a touchdown. Instead, Stroud threw an incomplete pass to Dell that was (a) right at the sideline and (b) seven yards short of the first down marker. In other words, all this did was stop the clock and allow Green Bay to keep their third timeout. Even the kickoff after the Fairbairn go-ahead field goal made no sense, kicking off through the end zone, and handing the ball over on a touchback at the 30 yard line, burning zero clock.

I could get into Ryans not using ANY of his timeouts to stop the clock once Green Bay got into field goal range in the final minute, but my head hurts.

3. Tank Dell
Dell has had a rough 2024, thus far. His high point was last week, with seven catches for 57 yards and a  touchdown. When you’re nearly halfway through the season, and your high point is 57 yards receiving, you’re having a tough season. Tank put up a goose egg on Sunday, and dropped what would have been an early touchdown pass on the Texans’ first drive, after  the Hewitt interception. I do like the wrinkle of using Dell on punt returns, but if Dell is who he was last year, it shouldn’t be this hard to get him the football.

2. Defensive penalties
The Texans’ defense played a solid game on Sunday. There were a few mistakes, as there will be in any NFL game, but to me the most egregious were Neville Hewitt’s 15 yard penalty for duplexing Jayden Reed after the whittle, and Eric Murray’s 30 yard pass interference penalty on the next drive. Each penalty was a key catalyst to a Packers touchdown drive.

1. Chris Strausser
Here are the pressure numbers by the Packers’ defense on C.J. Stroud. Frankly, it felt like WAY more pressure than this:

It was a good day for Jeff Hafley and the Packers defense as they generated pressure on 48.3% of C.J. Stroud’s dropbacks, per NFL Pro

Stroud was 3/9 for 40 yards and 4 sacks when under pressure against GB pic.twitter.com/YFCRWkZrLy

— Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) October 20, 2024

Up until now, most of the heat for the poor line play has fallen on Slowik. But the line has been mediocre, at best, with Strausser as the position coach. What exactly does he do?

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