Second half struggles continue to doom Texans against Jets

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 11/28/21

“It’s frustrating when you lose any of them,” said Texans head coach David Culley. “We just didn’t play well in the second half. We had that same thing happen last week, but we were able to hold on. We just have to keep working on it, look at the video and keep evaluating everything we do. We have to correct it.”

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Second half struggles continue to doom Texans against Jets

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For the second straight week the Houston Texans built an early lead but struggled offensively in the second half.

In their last game against the Dolphins, the Texans were able to do enough to come out with a victory, but that wouldn’t be the case against the New York Jets.

The Texans (2-9) took a 14-11 lead into halftime but only mustered 59 yards of offense in the second half on the way to a loss to the 3-8 Jets.

“It’s frustrating when you lose any of them,” said Texans head coach David Culley. “We just didn’t play well in the second half. We had that same thing happen last week, but we were able to hold on. We just have to keep working on it, look at the video and keep evaluating everything we do. We have to correct it.”

The Texans made an early mistake but quickly recovered.

Houston drove the field to start the game but Tyrod Taylor had a screen pass deflected and intercepted, that the Jets brought back to the Texans 40-yard-line. The Jets offense took advantage of the turnover by getting the ball inside the 10-yard-line, but Houston’s defense responded by holding New York to a field goal.

It took until the second quarter, but Houston got on the board with a 13-yard pass from Taylor to Brevin Jordan and made things a double-digit lead when Brandin Cooks hauled in a 40-yard touchdown from Taylor minutes later. But the Jets trimmed things to a three-point deficit going into the half with a 2-yard Austin Walter run and two-point-conversion by Josh Johnson.

“We did a pretty good job in the first half, we put drives together and really marched the ball down the field,” said Texans running back Rex Burkhead. In the second half we just struggled to do that. We weren’t converting on third down. We did a good job on first and second, getting us into those opportunities, but we just didn’t do well.”

The Jets came out strong in the second half and took their opening drive 75 yards on 11 plays, capped off by a 4-yard touchdown run by Zach Wilson and after forcing the Texans to punt went right down the field again, but Matt Amendola missed a field goal with a chance to put the Jets up 7.

The Texans responded with yet another three and out, but the Texans defense held the Jets to a 37-yard field goal giving Houston one last chance to respond. But the Texans failed to gain a first down, practically ending things. Houston got the ball back with 20 seconds left but couldn’t do anything with it.

“On that second to last drive, we thought we had an opportunity, but the defense gave us a tough look,” Taylor said. “We wanted to get the first first down and then go into two-minute mode or hurry up mode. We just didn’t execute and the way we needed to, and it didn’t work out for us. We just didn’t execute, if you look at the first half, when the game was in our favor, we were executing and doing what we needed to with our plays. We just didn’t do that in the second half.”

The Texans finished the game with 254 yards of total offense and once again failed to top 100 yards rushing. Even as Culley bills the Texans as a running team.

“It’s inconsistency, we had some penalties and some sacks. There were some missed assignments,” Culley said. “It’s gotten minimal, but the good thing is we haven’t been turning it over. We just have to get more consistent with doing the things consistently we need to do in order to stay on the field. We’re not doing that.”

The Texans will take on The Indianapolis Colts at noon next Sunday at NRG Stadium.

NFL, Texans, Houston, New York, Jets, football, sports, David Culley, Tyrod Taylor