The Texans still haven’t graduated from a good team to the NFL’s elite

It’s not time for the Texans to sound the alarm just yet. At 6-4, they’re still right in the playoff picture. But they’re coming off their most embarrassing loss of the season, a 41-7 thrashing to the Ravens in Week 11. There were no real positives to take from Houston’s performance, either. They completely failed to stop Lamar Jackson in a game that was shockingly absent of Deshaun Watson heroics.

Houston made some major moves to shore up the talent around Watson over the past year, including the blockbuster trade for left tackle Laremy Tunsil. The Texans went into “win now” mode, and with Watson’s ability, it was easy to think they were set to take the next step and become one of the elite teams in the league.

Baltimore was their biggest test to date, and to put it bluntly: the Texans failed miserably. They looked disorganized from the beginning and lost the battle in the trenches on offense and defense.

So, was the game a clear statement that the Texans aren’t ready, or was it a one-off dud? Let’s break down some film to see what went most wrong.

The offensive line had shown some improvement going into the Ravens game, with Watson being sacked seven times over the previous five games. By comparison, he was sacked 18 times in the first month of the season. However, the Houston offensive line allowed seven sacks in Baltimore (six with Watson under center, one with backup AJ McCarron).

It’s worth noting that Watson potentially had his most disastrous game of his career against the Ravens. He lobbed several deep balls to DeAndre Hopkins out of desperation, and had one of the worst picks he’s ever thrown. He made questionable decisions and some of those six sacks were on him.

But it wasn’t a good game for the line, which couldn’t keep up with Watson’s scrambling.

The play above was a third-and-10, with the Texans down 21 points early in the second half. Unfortunately, both Tunsil and left guard Max Scharping got beat on the play, which wasn’t particularly sneaky. The Ravens just ran right past them. I had to watch several times to confirm that it was not even a stunt. The line just ... forgot they were playing football, I guess?

How about something that came at a very bad time?

With less than a minute until halftime and Houston in Baltimore territory, Watson dropped back, stepped up into the pocket, and was promptly sacked by Jaylon Ferguson, who handily beat right tackle Tytus Howard on the play. The Texans were looking to go deep, and Watson never got a chance to properly get his eyes downfield.

Not every bad play by the offensive line resulted in a sack, though.

This was on fourth-and-2 in the fourth quarter, and it looks like Watson always intended to go to Hopkins but was rushed by the all-out blitz from the Ravens. As a result, his pass was low and slightly off target, and it fell incomplete. The Texans might have attempted something bolder if the line hadn’t already been beaten up for three quarters.

Watson is known for being able to make something out of nothing, a lot like Russell Wilson in that way. Sometimes, though, when you try to make something out of nothing, you still get nothing.

Like this play from the first quarter:

Watson didn’t really lose sight of what was happening downfield until about 4 seconds into his dropback. But he went ahead and avoided a Ferguson sack a few different times while trying to keep the play alive. It was a futile effort, and a microcosm of the Texans’ offense, where one man is trying to make miracles happen.

If you can believe it, it got worse than the play above.

Watson was again pressured early, and tried to make a play outside of the pocket. Except this one was one of the worst interceptions you’ll see this season. It was an off-balance, cross-body throw with half the Ravens defense right in front of him, and it was easily intercepted by Josh Bynes.

It wasn’t any one thing that failed for the Texans — it was virtually everything. The defense let the Baltimore offense rack up 25 first downs and convert 5 of 9 third downs. The defensive line got bullied the whole game, only totaling one sack. The normally stout run defense surrendered a (by far) season-high 263 yards on the ground. The passing defense — already near the bottom of the league’s rankings— allowed four touchdowns and had problems with tackling.

Houston started to get more aggressive on defense in the second half. It called more blitzes and tried to force Lamar Jackson out of his comfort zone. That just resulted in overcommitting and extremely poor angles.

Observe:

Every person on the defense was moving to the left side of the field, and Mark Ingram caught perhaps the easiest swing pass of his career on the right side. He then strolled into the end zone, with cornerback Gareon Conley making a weak attempt at a touchdown-saving tackle.

Those kind of tackles and bad angles happened over and over against the Ravens. And while the Ravens have an excellent offense, they didn’t do anything the Texans wouldn’t have been able to see on film in the two weeks they had to prepare for this game.

Surprising nobody, Jackson was fantastic in the game. The MVP candidate went 17 of 24 for 222 yards and four touchdowns in the air, and also rushed for 86 yards. Jackson is the most electrifying player in the NFL and the Ravens might just be the best team in the league, but Houston had NOTHING to offer in resistance to Jackson.

Check out how hard Charles Omenihu (No. 94) bit on this fake handoff:

After the fake, Jackson avoided five different tackles running right through the Houston defense. You’ll also see that multiple Texans players ran into each other, taking themselves out of the play as a result. Jackson has been doing that to teams all season, and after how poorly the defense performed in the first half, he knew full well that he could gash them in the second half.

The banged-up Texans secondary had their hands full trying to stop Jackson’s arm, too.

Jackson seems to be getting more and more confident with his passes every week. Look at how perfectly he stepped ALL THE WAY UP in the pocket before delivering a strike right to Seth Roberts. It was a great throw and a great catch, and it was delivered with the velocity and angle of a quarterback who knows he has the defense figured out.

The good news for the Texans is that there’s only one Lamar Jackson. The bad news is that the AFC could very well go right through him and the Ravens.

There are some long-term concerns for the Texans. J.J. Watt is out for the year with yet another injury, they don’t have a first-round draft pick the next two years, and they have key decisions to make on upcoming free agents like Bradley Roby, Whitney Mercilus, Johnathan Joseph, and D.J. Reader.

There are more pressing short-term concerns, though. Yes, Houston is still in the hunt for the division title or at least a wild card spot. The issue is this team has been in very similar situations in recent years: The Texans have won the AFC South five times this decade, but haven’t made it to the AFC Championship Game once. They just can’t seem to get over the hump.

The Ravens loss was jarring in a way that could easily hurt morale. With tough games against the Colts (who they already lost to in Week 7), and the Patriots right after that, it could be a rough few weeks for Houston.

Despite the beating the Ravens gave them, there’s still hope. Personally, I think the Texans will ultimately make the postseason, and from there, anything can happen. Watson is good and Houston, to its credit, is trying its hardest to not waste his talent.