The Houston Texans have struggled to move the ball through the air in 2022, and quarterback Davis Mills seemed hesitant to tell reporters that anything might change in that regard any time soon in comments to the media on Wednesday. Though it may not be the most heartening thing a player has said in a press conference, Mills’ reasoning was sound.
“I think how football has evolved in recent years. Across the league, I think defense has the one up on offense with just the sheer talent, speed and size of the defensive linemen and the blitz packages, that offenses are trying to find ways to catch back up,” He explained. “Running the football and beating them down is one way to do it, and another way is to win those one-on-one matchups when you can catch them in man-to-man coverage. Other than that, like I said, the rest of our stuff is progression based.
“You’ve got to fall back on your training and your preparation throughout the week to hopefully find someone open as it progresses, because right now there’s not a lot of things you can predict pre-snap. Teams are disguising really well. They are running coverages that aren’t very by-the-book of old school defenses, just straight coverages. They are running a lot of combination coverages and different ways to get to similar coverages, but it’s not the traditional way. There’s a lot of things you’ve got to react to and just go out there and be a football player so you can make a play.”
Luckily, the Texans’ strength is on the ground, and with just eight more games on their 2022 schedule, the team should be able to maintain the success they’ve found in the running game with rookie sensation Dameon Pierce. His hard-nosed running style has yet to fail Houston this season, and with a few more performances like the ones he has turned out in recent weeks, the team could effectively mitigate their lackluster passing attack which has held them back since the season opener.
