Bobby Slowik knows he needs to get Joe Mixon back on track.
The Texans’ running game, which has carried an inconsistent offense all season, has gotten worse in recent weeks. Mixon averaged 95.5 rushing yards per game through his first eight games of the season. Over his past four games, that has dropped to 50.8, including a 14-carry, 57-yard effort in Saturday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The way Slowik sees it, as Houston begins its home stretch by hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas, it needs to call for more runs — even if the Texans are tempted to throw the ball a lot, as they have the past two weeks.
Starting in Week 12, Mixon averaged 15 carries, down from 21.5 in Week 11.
“Joe’s not going to get 100 yards if I give him the ball 12 times,” the Houston coordinator said Monday. “In the playoffs, the running game will be a big part.”
Regaining the rushing attack is critical for the Texans (9-6) after Tank Dell was ruled out for the season. The second-year wide receiver dislocated his kneecap and tore his ACL against Kansas City, an injury that affected Houston. Dell is one of the Texans’ most beloved players, including one of CJ Stroud’s best friends.
From a football perspective, the franchise lost its second-leading receiver.
Dell ran a team-high 310 passes from wide receiver, according to Next Gen Stats. His absence will be felt most in the middle game, on passes between 10 and 19 air yards. That’s where Dell had 323 of his 667 receiving yards this season (48.4%), per NGS. That’s where he posted a catch rate that included 13.4% more than expected and an expected 26.3 points added to the receiving game. Dell and Nico Collins are the only Texans wide receivers with an above-expected catch rate and double-digit EPA (including Stefon Diggs, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 8), indicating Houston’s loss how much to play. outside.
For more context, Stroud has targeted the middle of the field on 23.3% of his passes this season, the 10th-highest rate in the league, per NGS. He guided that part of the field to the league’s best rate in his record-setting season.
The midfield has been a big part of Stroud’s success to start his career, and now he won’t have a significant reason why.
“You’ve got to keep cutting wood, keep carrying water,” Stroud said. “The position we’re in, it’s not often you can wallow in your emotions for long. You have to keep rolling.”
Enter Dionntae Johnson, who the Texans claimed off waivers from the Ravens on Monday.
In 2023, his last full season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson was more successful in terms of catch rate than expected, receiving EPA and EPA per target in the middle half of the field, according to NGS. Of his 717 receiving yards, 310 of them (or 43.2%) came on intermediate passes. Also, 78.2% of his routes in 2023 came from wideouts, another indication that Johnson could be a good addition to replace Dell at this point in the season.
The problem is that Houston is guaranteed just three more games in 2024 — its final two regular-season games and a tie for the wild cards. And Johnson playing with his old team, the Ravens, on Christmas, just two days after being sued, seems unlikely. In fact, coach DeMeco Ryans said Monday that it would be “unrealistic” for a freshman to get up to speed enough in a short week to play.
In fact, Johnson will likely only have two guaranteed games with Houston, which is a limited amount of time to adjust to Houston’s playbook and build a relationship with Stroud.
Even if Johnson, who caught just one pass for 6 yards during a drama-filled six-game stint with Baltimore, is motivated to finish his 2024 on a positive note ahead of his contract year, the reality is his impact on the playoff run. numbers to be small.
That means the Texans will need to lean heavily on Dalton Schultz to replace Dell, and more will be expected of receivers John Metchie, Robert Woods and Xavier Hutchinson. The defense, which has played at a Super Bowl-caliber level, will need to maintain its high-level play. Houston will get starting quarterback Azeez Al-Shaair back from regular-season suspension against Tennessee next week, it added.
But getting Mixon back and the running game back is key for the injury-riddled team, which begins Wednesday against Baltimore.
“Just because we’re in this position doesn’t mean you’re going to have regrets or anything like that,” Stroud said. “No, you’ve got to keep rolling, and I think playing will help. Winning helps. Yes, it doesn’t fill all the space for the pain, but it can also make you feel better right now. But I think the main thing for us is just to … take these next few weeks as something we can do and focus on one thing at a time .
“I think that’s the recipe for the whole season.”
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was a coach Titans beat the writer for a year and a half. He covered us Seattle Seahawks of SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) before moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]
Find out more about the National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about sports, news and more