The Houston Texans took a 20-6 punch to the gut from the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, and the special teams unit looked like it forgot how to play football. Head coach DeMeco Ryans didn’t mince words after the game, calling their performance “Not great. Not good enough. It wasn’t winning football from a special teams perspective.” You gotta respect a coach who calls it like it is, but man, those words sting when you know he’s right.
The Ugly Truth of Special Teams Disaster
It wasn’t just one thing, either. Every single element of that special teams unit played way below what you’d expect. Punter Kai Kroeger averaged a measly 41.4 yards per punt. Then there was the absolute disaster in the first quarter: a bad snap and hold on a 34-yard field goal attempt that was basically a freebie. Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn later missed a 58-yarder, which is tough but not what you want when points are at a premium. Cincinnati’s Dohnte Meyers was making it look easy on kickoff returns, averaging 30 yards per pop, including a 40-yarder to open the game. Meanwhile, the Bengals were starting at their own 40-yard line or better a whopping six times! The Texans’ best start was their own 41. That’s how you lose the field-position battle, plain and simple.
Blame and a Botched Opportunity
The botched field goal attempt in the first quarter, when the score was still 0-0, was a total momentum killer. Both Kroeger and long snapper Austin Brinkman stepped up and took the blame for that mess. Brinkman straight up said it was “100% on me,” admitting the snap “was not where it needed to be, not where it has been.” He put those guys in a terrible spot. But Kroeger, to his credit, owned his part too, saying, “If the ball gets to me, it’s my job to get it down as the holder.” He even talked up Fairbairn, calling him “the best kicker in the league,” saying they needed to give him an opportunity. Fairbairn himself couldn’t even remember another time in his whole NFL career where he couldn’t get a kick off. That’s how bad it was.
Kicking Woes and a Concerning Trend
Even the next field goal try wasn’t smooth sailing, with what looked like another shaky snap. Kroeger managed to get it down, and Fairbairn hit it from 37 yards, so at least that went through. But then came that 58-yard miss in the third quarter when they were down 10-3, a kick Fairbairn said was “a little toey.” Look, the guy has played 140 games for the Texans and was 52 of 70 from 50-plus yards coming into this game, so he’s got the leg. But the unit as a whole? It’s not looking good. In Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills, Kroeger averaged 52 yards per punt and Fairbairn nailed a 58-yarder to take a fourth-quarter lead. So, they *can* do it. But Sunday? Only the punting itself showed a noticeable improvement from the Buffalo game. That’s not good enough, and Coach Ryans knows it.
So, where do they go from here? This early in the season, these kind of special teams breakdowns are just killers. They gave up too much field position, missed critical points, and the whole operation just felt off. They’ve got to clean this up, fast, because giving away free yards and points like this is a recipe for a long, frustrating season, no matter how good the rest of the team plays.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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