Right tackle Tytus Howard was watching the movie Drumline the other night when he made the connection between the Texans’ offensive line and the band director’s constant mantra throughout the movie.
One band. One sound.
“It kind of stuck out to me because that’s how it as an offensive line,” Howard said. “We’ve all got to stick together. We all have to be on the same page at all times.”
But that certainly hasn’t been the case for the Texans’ offensive line, especially these last few weeks, especially in the second half and especially pass blocking.
Noticing a pattern?
Some things are broken along the Texans’ offensive front, and it’s not an easy fix because the issues are complex and multiple. We saw it in the loss to the Green Bay Packers a couple of weeks ago and the issues came to the forefront again during Thursday Night’s troubling loss at the New York Jets.
When left tackle Laremy Tunsil isn’t committing pre-snap penalties he is missing blocks. And before left guard Kenyon Green suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the first half against the Jets, the young player was struggling. But there have been problems on the right side of the line too where Shaq Mason and Howard are expected to hold it down and up the middle over Juice Scruggs.
And quarterback C.J. Stroud and the passing game are paying the price. Stroud was sacked a career-high eight times in New York last week. He has been sacked an NFL-high 30 times this season and is on pace to be sacked 56 times if things don’t change.
This can’t continue, especially with arguably the league’s team, the Detroit Lions, coming into NGR Stadium on Sunday night.
“You have to take it to heart, winning, losing,” Howard said. “As O-linemen when you’ve got a quarterback like C.J. we’ve got to be at our best at all times.”
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans has said in the past that all options are on the table when it comes to fixing what is wrong with the Texans. But his focus was on, “We all have to play better,” instead of focusing on any one area.
He wouldn’t even commit to perhaps making changes to the lineup this week.
“We will continue to look at that throughout the week,” Ryans said. “But we all have to play better.”
