Lack of fundamentals costs Texans in 17-10 loss to the Titans

HOUSTON — One of the fundamentals you learn on the first day of practice in little league football is how to tackle. Before the coaches split you into position groups, they take the whole team through tackling drills for a few days.

Houston Texans coach Lovie Smith needs to consult some little league coaches around the city to see what drills they are teaching and use them during weekly practices.

Yes, it sounds hilarious, but the Texans’ defense could use all the help they can get with the tackling deficiency that is getting worse every game.

Houston’s front seven was exploited for the second consecutive week in the run game by allowing 314 rushing yards in the 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Texans head coach Lovie Smith when I asked him about getting back to the fundamentals of tackling:
“We’ve been getting back to the fundamentals. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen, simple as that.” #Sarge pic.twitter.com/fU2cYlZMCb

— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) October 31, 2022

Running back Derrick Henry was responsible for 219 of those yards on 32 carries. The former 2020 NFL Offensive Player of the Year continued his dominance over the Texans by rushing for his fourth 200-yard game against Houston.

At times it seemed as if Henry was going through running back drills in his backyard with as much space as he had to operate, and when a Texans defender tried to stop him, he would just run right through them. It was almost a repeat performance of what Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs did to the Houston defense a week prior.

Lovie Smith is just as perplexed by the inability of his defensive players to stop the opposing team’s offensive weapons.

“We’ve been getting back to the fundamentals,” said Smith about trying to fix the tackling woes. “Sometimes it just doesn’t happen, simple as that. We practice each week. Believe it or not, we go over the fundamentals. Some days you miss tackles. Today was one of those days.”

With the number of rushing yards given up by the defense on Sunday, Houston will remain the worst rushing defense in the NFL, as they were already giving up 164.7 yards per game entering the matchup with Tennessee.

It only gets more challenging as the Texans’ defense has a short turnaround before they take on the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday at NRG Stadium.