Houston Texans Final Score/Post-Game Recap: Falcons 32, Texans 53

Week One = 28 points. Week Three = 27 points. Week Five = 53 points.

The Texans’ offense has oscillated between spectacular and the juice at the bottom of the recycling bin, the coagulation of all that last sip swill swirling around at the bottom of cans and bottles. This week, in an odd week, Houston’s offense was once again spectacular.

When the Texans threw the ball today, they couldn’t be stopped. Houston’s playcallers did a phenomenal job of using DeAndre Hopkins to open up Will Fuller downfield and get Fuller into one-on-one isolation matchups against Isiah Oliver that Fuller could take advantage of. After doing nothing this season, Fuller caught 3 touchdowns and 14 catches on 16 targets for 217 yards this afternoon. The Texans also did a nice job getting Hopkins in the slot to create some easy catches.

Just as importantly, the Falcons sat back in coverage. They don’t even have a competent secondary since Keanu Neal went down. They rarely blitzed. They didn’t run very many creative stunts. They didn’t do the things Houston’s offensive line had struggled against.

Instead, they rushed head up. Big on big. Hat on hat. Call it what you want. The Texans blocked their individual matchups well, and Grady Jarrett was the only one who occasionally produced pressure; when he did, Deshaun Watson was able to slither his way out of it.

The Falcons’ offensive day is worse than the numbers will indicate. The playcalling was an abomination. They ran the ball too often on first and second down, making their offense one-dimensional and predictable. Add some offensive penalties, and you have a stagnated offense that was asleep for most of the game until they were down big late and were stuck playing spread throw the ball against their will. Balance, balance, balance, or something, says the coach playing losing football. We are all better offensive coordinators than Dirk Koetter.

The game of course had to end in one possession...Calvin Ridley caught an outside the structure deep touchdown pass to make it 40-32. The Texans had the ball again, and from there they went to working doing what they love to do—kill the clock.

This time, Houston didn’t kill the clock. They went for it. They found Fuller deep down the sideline one more time to lop the head off. Houston didn’t force their defense to make a play. They didn’t keep it a one possession game. Wait a second...could Bill O’Brien finally be learning something?

The scoring didn’t end there. Tashaun Gipson turned an overthrow to Austin Hooper into yer another trip to the end zone. Matt Ryan has been crappy this season. Don’t let the numbers fool you. Watch the film.

Next week the Texans play the Chiefs in Kansas City at 12:00 p.m. Get ready. It’s an even week.