The Houston Texans are sitting at a brutal 2-5 record heading into their bye week, a record made even more frustrating by a 27-21 overtime loss to the New York Giants. That’s the reality Executive Vice President and General Manager Nick Caserio laid out, admitting the team “definitely can play better” and that they could do a “number of things better collectively, myself included.” It’s not just the record, it’s how they’ve gotten there, and the GM’s bye week comments paint a pretty stark picture.
Fundamentals Are Failing, and the Losses Are Piling Up
Forget complex schemes, Caserio’s assessment boils everything down to the absolute basics: “it comes back to basic fundamentals and techniques. Tackling is tackling. You’re either a good tackler or you’re not.” Ouch. That’s a direct shot at the team’s effort and execution, and the numbers back it up: Houston is “one of the worst penalized teams in the league, one of the worst tackling teams in the league.” How do you expect to win when you can’t even get those core elements right? He’s looking for “incremental progress” in those areas, hoping it “can potentially lead to a better result.” The worst part? They’ve “lost four games on the last possession” and are a miserable 1-4 in one-score games, with the Jacksonville win being the only exception because they “executed critical situations.” The GM is basically telling us they’re beating themselves more often than not.
“The Team Is What the Team Is”: No Personnel Changes Coming Soon
Despite the frustrating record and the glaring fundamental issues, don’t expect a sudden roster overhaul. Caserio made it clear: “The team is what the team is. We’re not going to see significant change relative to personnel till the off-season.” This means the current group has to figure it out, because help isn’t on the way via mid-season trades or cuts. He mentioned that they “put the team together because we feel like that’s the right decision at the time,” and that they weren’t “focused on what do you think the result is going to be record-wise” then. But now, the results are staring them right in the face. He admits the team “haven’t played as consistently as we would have liked to from start to finish” and it’s been “a little disjointed.” Head Coach DeMeco Ryans has been preaching “complementary football,” but they haven’t found it. Caserio pointed out that, other than a “tough sledding” Cincinnati game, they’ve “put ourselves in position to win every game,” but just haven’t been able to “capitalize.” The other teams “made more plays.” It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it sounds like the fix has to come from within this current roster.
This bye week is massive for the Texans. They need to figure out how to stop shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and missed tackles, and how to close out games they have every opportunity to win. There’s “no reason to mope around and wallow in our sorrows,” Caserio said, but improvements need to happen, and fast, if they want to salvage anything from this season.
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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