Man, Free Monday: Texans narrowly edge Jaguars, 49ers smother Patriots

Texans offensive line disappoints again and the rest of the Sunday recaps

Jaguars 20 at Texans 24

Trevor Lawrence: Just not that accurate

I hadn’t had a huge helping of Lawrence games so far, because a) the Jaguars aren’t a national team and b) I always have plenty of AFC South in my life on account of the whole Texans thing so I don’t prioritize them. So while I covered last week’s Jaguars loss, I am getting my bearings on the whole Trevor Lawrence situation. Here are the bearings: This guy cannot throw an accurate deep football right now. If he had, the Jaguars would have won this game by 10 points.

This throw to Brian Thomas Jr. should have been six points. He beat Kamari Lassiter handily on a double move. But Lawrence sailed it.

This throw to Christian Kirk should have at least been a big gainer, if not a touchdown. Kirk won on his route. The quarterback delivered an uncatchable ball.

These are two throws — trust me when I tell you that there are many throws I could have picked. A checkdown throw to Travis Etienne on third down was nowhere close to the target while Lawrence was blitzed. Kirk had a couple more throws where he was open that weren’t close. I still believe it is true that the Jacksonville offense isn’t well-coached and lacks weaponry. But this was not one of those games where the Jaguars failed their quarterback and 17 things went wrong on this one play that caused a perfect throw to fall apart. This was, as Doug Pederson (paraphrasing) said after the game, good play calls that were not executed correctly. (He still shouldn’t have said that out loud.)

I’m not fully out on Lawrence’s franchise quarterback status, but I do think he’s played worse this year than he had in 2023. I think it’s time for a new regime in Jacksonville, and with the contract they gave Lawrence, said regime better be primarily focused on making him work better than he has the last couple of months of football games he’s played in. Said regime also better have a general manager that can help out, because I watched Gabe Davis play this game and that contract is already a boondoggle.

Surrounded in yellow

The Texans were destined to find a narrative that was negative at some point this year. That isn’t a slam on them so much as, well, the way that narratives work in the NFL. Teams get a year to be surprise darlings, and then expectations build. Predictions about them making a major leap forward are lodged by major football media, and then teams get torn down the second they don’t live up to whatever you imagine that means. The Commanders with Jayden Daniels are currently in that honeymoon phase, a year away from the expectations. The Texans? Honeymoon is over.

And right now the narrative the Texans have accumulated is Team That Can’t Get Out Of Its Own Way. Houston was up 17-13 at halftime and scored seven points over the rest of the game. There were a few normal three-and-outs to start the second half, where Stefon Diggs had a ball broken up and the defense won on a blitz that caught the Texans off-guard. But then there were penalties. Three in one drive to start the fourth quarter, and another to kill Houston’s penultimate drive of the game. On the final drive, there were no penalties called against the Texans — though they were set up in poor field position by a special teams penalty — and they simply drove and won the game. Funny how that works.

I don’t think the Texans laid an egg here. The Jaguars were close because of a muffed punt. But it does feel like between the run-game malfunctions and the offensive line’s neverending quest to get penalized, the offense is playing like less than the sum of its parts.

I don’t know the state of Laremy Tunsil’s ankle. He left and came back. But if he can’t play without holding as much as he did when he came back — and he did look like he had some problems with defensive line games when he came back — I am starting to get concerned about the franchise left tackle. I say that and I know that in theory there’s nothing actually wrong with him — he’s played up to his standard — but his answers were very obstinate about officiating last week and it sure didn’t look like anything changed this week. Sometimes, even the best have things to correct.

The running game needs work, and the defense needs better safety play and better rush from its non-blitzes. Luckily the Texans have C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins, so they are 3-1 with those issues instead of 1-3.

Rarely is there a team that is as lucky as the 2023 Texans are as far as long-term outcomes from their players, let alone the charmed life they lived in close games. I don’t say that as shade or shame — it was truly remarkable. But this is football, this is a more regular season. Life isn’t always going to be that easy. It’s nice to feel both vexed by things and be sitting in a position at 3-1 with a game in hand on the Colts. A “feel bad” 3-1. I’ll take that after the 2021 and 2022 Texans.

Patriots 13 at 49ers 30

George Kittle at the catch point:

I know that there are many “my ball” players in the NFL. But nobody seems like he thrives in it more than Kittle. Man. The Patriots do not have a bad defense, and they surrounded him with three guys. But he did not care.

Well, that was about the only takeaway I had from what seemed a by-the-book affair in San Francisco. Jacoby Brissett can keep you in a game here or there, but the 49ers largely Got Right against the Patriots. Brissett took six sacks and was pressured on 53.8% of his dropbacks. The 49ers scored about two other touchdowns taken off the board by penalties. The Patriots never really threatened to score outside of getting the ball deep in 49ers territory on a special-teams fumble recovery.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the Patriots play the Dolphins next week in a profoundly depressing game that someone will win.

Around The League

Saints 24 at Falcons 26 — The Falcons did not score a single offensive touchdown — Kirk Cousins was woeful when blitzed, with only 30 passing yards on those dropbacks. A pick-six and a special-teams touchdown along with four Younghoe Koo field goals, the last as time expired, were enough to topple the Saints. Both teams are now 2-2 and my Saints priors feel a little bit better about how things have turned out the last two weeks.

Rams 18 at Bears 24 — Just when you thought you could get rid of D’Andre Swift in fantasy, he rose up with a 16/93/1 rushing line and led the team with seven catches for 72 yards. I guess that’s what “aggressive” means. (Is it good when your rookie quarterback is calling out your offensive coordinator three games into the year?) I didn’t watch this game live and Football People I Trust On My Timeline acted like Matthew Stafford deserved Canton for making this game close, so this is on my watch list. Williams took pressures on 50% of his dropbacks per NFL Pro, as the offensive line continues to hold back the Bears. Also DJ Moore is getting the knife ready (h/t Kyle Dvorchak).

Broncos 10 at Jets 9 — Speaking of great news for my priors: The Jets lost to a profoundly unserious Bo Nix passing outlet that finished with 60 yards after being in negative numbers at halftime. Even after Will Lutz missed a late field goal and let the Jets have a chance to get off the hook, the offense went nowhere as the Broncos defense teed off on Aaron Rodgers with big blitzes. Greg Zuerlein pulled his field-goal attempt wide right to give Denver the win. Both teams are now 2-2 and Breece Hall had 14 rushing yards after contact in a game where he rushed for four yards, if you’re wondering about the Jets offensive line.

Vikings 31 at Packers 29 — The Vikings induced a little PTSD into their fanbase by taking a 28-0 lead down to 28-22 with 12 minutes to play, but held on. Sam Darnold threw this ball to Justin Jefferson that somehow felt like an impossible throw and an impossible catch:

The Packers will be fine, or do they have a quarterback controversy now that Malik Willis is 2-0 and Jordan Love is 0-2?!?!? (They’ll be fine.)

Bengals 34 at Panthers 24 — The Panthers defense, everyone:

Reminds me a lot of the time Steve Smith cleaved through like 10 Texans to get to the end zone back in the day. Those were happier times, right Panthers fans? Well anyway, the Bengals are off the mat and there was no Andy Dalton revenge this time.

Eagles 16 at Buccaneers 34 — The Eagles were getting outgained, at one point, 186 yards to 0. I’m starting to think that maybe A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are important players for the team. The Buccaneers are my one extremely embarrassing prior so far, as I thought they’d stink. Liam Coen, my apology is coming later this week. Baker Mayfield was only pressured on 11 of his 49 dropbacks despite a 28.0% blitz rate, so throw some respect on the playcalling and offensive line.

Steelers 24 at Colts 27 — Anthony Richardson left with a hip pointer injury — seems like he’ll be in line to start next week based on early reporting — but Joe Flacco picked up where he left off last year and slung it around the yard as the Colts built a 17-0 lead and Gentleman’s One Possession Gamed the Steelers. Justin Fields threw for 300 yards for the first time since … Week 4 of last season! It’s his only other 300-yard game. Zaire Franklin was not impressed with Najee Harris’ work.

Chiefs 17 at Chargers 10 — Rashee Rice was lost with what is suspected to be a torn ACL, meaning the Chiefs actually had to use Travis Kelce and everything in this game. The fantasy football world was happy to see a tight end worth using. Xavier Worthy caught a 54-yard deep shot touchdown before halftime, finally, and the Chiefs defense smothered up a rough Chargers offense with a limping quarterback. Kareem Hunt was signed to the active roster and immediately got 14 rushes. Good night to the Carson Steele Era.

Browns 16 at Raiders 20 — A late touchdown throw to Amari Cooper was taken off the board by penalty, and so the Browns scored just six offensive points. I don’t think that’s going to get it done, fellas. After the Raiders went up 20-10, these were the possessions for the rest of the game:

I assume based on last week’s talking points that both teams played two-high safeties for the rest of the half. I have to assume because if you try to load the game’s All-22, NFL.com makes you call a number for defense-first guys to verify that you are okay.

Commanders 42 at Cardinals 14 — The Jonathan Gannon defense does it again! This is also on the must-watch list because I haven’t done a full Jayden Daniels game yet and I want to get a sense of how it’s been done for myself. A lot of running in this game — 5.8 yards a pop over 37 carries for Washington, and 5.7 yards a pop over 32 for the Cardinals. The only player with a negative Rush EPA in the game was Trey Benson, who still went off for 9/50.

The Commies also managed to sack Kyler Murray four times for 27 yards — one on a fourth-down go — and that combined with a fumble recovery and a few midfield punts helps explain how the Cardinals could be so good on offense in theory and have just 14 points.

Bills 10 at Ravens 35 — Sometimes you’re the bully, and sometimes the real bully shows you who the bully actually is. The Bills couldn’t run effectively on Baltimore’s front, and the Ravens scored an 87-yard rushing touchdown by Derrick Henry on their first offensive snap. The Bills fall to 3-1 ahead of a date with the Texans, and the Ravens are back at 2-2 after an 0-2 start. It was the first time Buffalo had lost by more than six points in the regular season since 2021.