Recap: Houston Texans toiled in a hard fought loss to Carolina Panthers

That’s not how we envisioned coming out the bye week as the Panthers edged out the Texans.

The Houston Texans, after beating a tough NFC South opponent before the bye week in the New Orleans Saints, lost in the last moment to the Carolina Panthers 15-13.

The Texans offense spent most of the game sputtering. The ground game wasn’t there consistently and the passing lanes weren’t open for a majority of the game. However, they had two lengthy drives that ended in touchdowns. In years past those would have been field goals. Still, it wasn’t enough.

Stroud added his first rushing touchdown of the season in the second half. One of the developing stories this week will be Dameon Pierce’s inability to get the ball into the end zone. Andrew Beck added his first offensive touchdown of the season in the first half on a one yard touchdown run.

The defenses were the story of the game as they held the Panthers to 15 points and got a key goal line stand in the first half. The turnover on downs ended up being the difference in the game. Yet, the offense punted to the Panthers one too many times and the Panthers were able to win it in the end.

Fortunately for the Panthers they don’t award victories for beauty. You get them when you score more points than the other team. That’s what the Texans were unable to do today. They’ve had impressive victories like they had against the Pittsburgh Steelers and they have had ugly wins against the Saints. The ugly game didn’t go their way this week.

The Texans missed a key opportunityto surpass their win total from last season, going into their final battle with the NFC South with a 3-4 record. They complete their NFC South gauntlet next Sunday with a home battle against the Tampe Bay Buccaneers.

It was a tough game against a winless team. Just as it seemed that the Texans had turned the corner, they took a step back when they were unable to solve the Panthers’ defense. How disappointed are you? Will the Texans address some holes prior to the trade deadline? Let’s hear from you in the comments.