Oh boy. Well I’ll just come right out and say it…the Texans just flat-out sucked in that game. If you didn’t watch the game and just happened to see the final score of 27-20, you may be misled to believe that the game was fairly close.
Sorry, but that just wasn’t the case at all. The Texans were actually down 27-6 before a late field goal made it 27-9 at half, and then the Chiefs coasted to the finish. So what can we take away from this game? Answer: Not a whole lot of good things, but here we go.
What Was That, Hoyer?
So let’s start with the most obvious problem from yesterday’s game: Brian Hoyer. He was bad. I mean really bad. Hoyer threw a horrible interception and fumbled deep in the Texans’ own 
territory, basically handing the Chiefs 14 points.
Doing some real college math here, those 14 points Hoyer’s turnovers led to ended up being the difference in the game. What’s worse? Those turnovers are pretty much indicative of how Hoyer played all game. When your quarterback puts your defense in a whole early and often, there’s not much of a chance to win.
Oh, it’s worth noting that Hoyer’s final QBR for the game was 12.3.
QB Controversy?
Brian Hoyer certainly didn’t do himself any favors in his first regular season start for the Texans. However, after he was pulled in the 
fourth quarter, Ryan Mallett looked solid, going 8-of-13 passing with 93 yards and a touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins.
Hoyer certainly wasn’t feeling the love from the fans, and they have every right to be annoyed with his effort. But does this mean there’s a quarterback controversy now in Houston? Let’s put it this way: Expect Brian Hoyer to start next week, but expect him to be on a very short leash as well.
Beaten By The Pass
The defense wasn’t done any favors by the offense, but surprisingly they didn’t necessarily rise to the occasion either. A Chiefs team that mainly focuses on the run game torched the Texans through the air.
Alex Smith went 22-for-33 with 243 yards passing and three touchdowns. It was a pretty ugly effort all around, but you can’t let a tight end whose name is not Gronkowski beat you for over 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Linebacker and safety coverages need to be addressed this week for sure.
Short Yardage Struggles
If there’s one thing we’ve been able to consistently say the Texans have had problems with since the start of the summer, it’s converting in short yardage situations. Back in preseason, the Texans had seven rushing chances in a row from inside the five and couldn’t convert in one game.
Houston converted just three third downs on 14 attempts, and only scored two touchdowns in four Red Zone trips. It might be time to invest in a back who can just plow through the line for those last couple of yards in third down and Red Zone scenarios.
I’ll end with two slightly positive takeaways, though, just to give you something to look forward to.
AFC South Struggles
It’s a really long season, and one loss on opening day isn’t going to kill your playoff hopes. It always helps when the rest of your divisional opponents (with the exception of Tennessee) also had horrible showings in their first games.
Indy got pummeled by the Bills, and the Jags just shot themselves in the foot against Cam and the Panthers. So it’s not like the Texans are in a massive hole after the loss to Kansas City. The struggle seems to be real for the entire division except for Marcus Mariota.
Watt If…
There was one strong performance on the Houston side from the man, the myth, the legend: JJ Watt. Watt finished the game with nine solo tackles, six tackles for loss, three quarterback hits 
and two sacks, one of which came without wearing a helmet. He’s just a beast.
If only the Texans had 22 identical JJ Watts, playing every single position on both sides of the football. That would be the most consistent and dominant team in the NFL. Unfortunately, modern science doesn’t quite allow for that yet, but one day…one day.
