Houston Texans fall in season opener to Jacksonville

Tom Savage (3) was 7-of-13 for 62 yards against the Jaguars.
Photo by Jorge A Campos, Nincha News
Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserve

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (September 10, 2017) The Houston Texans could not not get the offense and defense operating on the same page as they fell to the Jacksonville Jaguars by the score of 29-7 at NRG Stadium in Houston. 

Quarterback Tom Savage started the game, completing 7-of-13 passes for 62 yards while being sacked six times. Deshaun Watson took over and went 12-of-23 for 102 yards along with being intercepted once. De'Andre Hopkins caught a four-yard touchdown pass from  Watson in the third quarter to cap a 14-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 5:51.  Ka’imi Fairbairn made the extra point attempt to complete the Texans' scoring. Hopkins was quoted in his post-game meeting with the press: 

"It’s the name of football. You have to make adjustments on the go. We did some things in the second half that were better than the first half.”

Rookie Deshaun Watson (4) saw action in the game.
Photo by Jorge A Campos, Nincha News
Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserve

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien decision to replace Savage with Watson was questioned after the game. He responded,

“Right now we’re just trying to figure it (out). We have a quick turnaround here, so we have a lot of film to watch, a lot of things to get caught up on. The decision to go with Deshaun (Watson) really didn’t have a whole lot to do with – it had more to do with could we find the spark? Could we find somebody that could maybe make a play, that could escape the pocket? Things like that. I thought that Tom (Savage) really hung in there and played very tough. We had a hard time protecting him. So, I just made the decision to go with Deshaun.”

J.J. Watt talked about his performance in his first game since September 22, 2016. 

“Terrible. No other way to put it. Terrible. So, there’s only one way to go from here and that’s up. Can’t play much worse. Very excited that it’s a Thursday night game coming up and we get a chance to go out there and play football again very soon, because you don’t like to let a taste like this sit in your mouth for too long.”

Houston will travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals on Thursday Night Football in Week 2.