When the Houston Texans have the football, they’re just another mediocre (or worse) football team. The Texans’ quarterback situation has been shaky, and the team ranks 29th in the NFL. In fact, Houston scores just an average of 17.4 points per game.
So, as the Raiders prepare this week for their wild-card-round playoff game with the Texans in Houston Saturday, the opposing offense doesn’t offer a huge hurdle.
But on defense? That’s where the Texans are ultra dangerous. And that’s bad news for a Raiders team that will have either a wounded backup (Matt McGloin) or little-tested rookie (Connor Cook) throwing passes.
The Texans are the NFL’s top-ranked defense and second-ranked pass defense. Even without All-Pro defensive end J.J. Watt, who missed this season because of injury, the Titans are a terrific group. Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney is a Pro Bowler for the first time in his career and inside linebacker Benardrick McKinney is a wide-ranging stopper, in on a team-leading 129 tackles with five sacks. A pair of cornerbacks – Kareem Jackson and A.J. Bouye – are terrific in run support, ranking second and third on the team in tackles, while strong safety Quintin Demps has a team-best six interceptions.
So, the Raiders offense will have a tremendous challenge moving the ball with a second- or third-tier QB and a running attack that faltered last week in the loss to the Denver Broncos.
If the Raiders have any chance at beating the Texans and moving on in the postseason, they’ll have to do a better job of running the football. They can’t put all the responsibility on McGloin or Cook. The offensive line will need a terrific game to free up Latavius Murray, DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard for consistent gains.
That didn’t happen against the Broncos, with Oakland able to gain just 57 yards rushing.
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Washington said the Broncos deserve credit for “bottling us up,” but predicted a better game this week.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board and bounce back,” he told reporters.
Head coach Jack Del Rio this week said the Raiders made a mistake against the Broncos by not running the ball enough. That, he said, was in part because the Raiders were down early in the game.
With three Pro Bowl picks on the offensive line – left tackle Donald Penn, left guard Kelechi Osemele and center Rodney Hudson – the Raiders ran the ball very well during the regular season. On Saturday, it’s likely that Del Rio and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave will try to run early to gain some momentum and establish a physical attitude.
“We’re big boys,” said Del Rio. “We can take it (last week’s loss) like men and move on. We’ll be ready to roll. We have a good group of men. We’ll shift into playoff mode.”
Saturday’s game in Houston is scheduled to kick off at 1:35 p.m.
