On the biggest stage of the young season, the Houston Texans came out and looked flat. They were the team elected to kick things off against the defending champions as head coach Bill O’Brien and his team faced off with the Kansas City Chiefs.
They started things out looking strong and even took a 7-0 lead against the Chiefs after running back David Johnson ran in an impressive 19-yard touchdown. That run capped off an impressive nine-play, 80-yard drive for the Texans, who were hoping to convince people that they made the right move trading away DeAndre Hopkins for Johnson and a second-round pick.
The problem is, Houston then surrendered 24-straight points as things got out of control. Johnson finished with a good first game with his new team — 77 yards rushing and 32 receiving — but the receiver-by-committee approach failed them. No one outside of Will Fuller stood out and Deshaun Watson was unable to carry things in this one.
Not all of that was on him as the receivers struggled to get separation and every offensive lineman gave up more than one pressure on the night, which has been a recurring problem for this team. We shouldn’t freak out too much over one game — especially against the defending champions — but it was still pretty ugly.