Inside the Texans’ run-first offense, there’s not much room in the game plan for throwing to tight ends.
Pharaoh Brown, Jordan Akins and Antony Auclair are primarily utilized as blockers.
In the first game of the season, Brown caught four passes for 67 yards in a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Since that game, though, Brown has only been targeted three times and has one reception for six yards during that span. Overall, Brown has five catches for 73 yards on eight targets.
Akins has six catches for 53 yards on 10 targets. And Auclair has zero catches and targets in four games and three starts.
Even if the Texans' offense starts clicking, the tight ends don't figure heavily into the equation.
“It’s not necessarily that it has to open up,” Brown said Friday at NRG Stadium. “I think our tight ends are good enough, we just haven’t been asked to be used the past couple of weeks, we have no control of that. We just have to play the role that we are asked each week. That’s sometimes what you are asked to do, even though I think we have two good tight ends, three good tight ends that can go in there and make things happens in both run and pass. But this game sometimes you’re not just used to do that, so you just have to do what we have to do each week to help the team win. I think that’s all what everybody is focused on right now.”
Texans coach David Culley didn't chalk up the reduced productivity from Brown to the shift from injured veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor to rookie Davis Mills.
“I don’t think it’s the change in quarterbacks,” Culley said. “I think it was the fact that (Brown) wasn’t playing as good later on as he has been, as he was playing earlier. Not just him, but other guys also. When one guy on the offense, we talk about being ‘one-11th’, when one guy on the offense is not doing his job, it affects everybody else’s job.
"Whether it’s the quarterback, the line, the backs, the receivers, it affects everybody’s job. Sometimes in certain situations it affects other guys job more than others especially if it’s a pass play where a guy is wide open doing the field and a guy misses a block or a guy makes a block and a guy doesn’t uncover, those things are all part of that. We just haven’t been consistent enough in doing that and that has nothing to do with our quarterback.”
The Texans were thoroughly dominated by the Buffalo Bills during a 40-0 defeat last Sunday during the most lopsided loss in franchise history.
Mills was intercepted four times and the offense had five turnovers overall and just 109 yards of total offense.
Where does a player start in analyzing that shellacking?
“I’m not sure, probably with the knockout,” Brown said. “Who knows? You can pick anywhere. It’s just one of those times you’ve just got to keep the same mindset that you do in the old saying, ‘Flush it after 24 hours and keep going.’
“We got our ass kicked. You got knocked out, you’ve got to get back up, and what are you going to do next? This week of preparation has been great. Guys have been sticking together, we had a great week of practice. Now, we have the opportunity to go prove ourselves this Sunday.”
Since the season-opening victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Texans haven’t been able to establish the run despite the emphasis on running the football and the presence of three former Pro Bowl selections in Mark Ingram, David Johnson and Phillip Lindsay.
Are the Texans being too predictable in their play-calling and alignments?
“We just got to switch up some of the looks and some of our tendencies,” Brown said. “I know last week we were having a few loaded boxes. We have to get our pass game and really just balance out our whole offense. I think that will help us out a lot because a couple of plays last week just not people in the box and we have eight blockers, it’s hard to run into those looks.
“Once the pass game gets going, the offense in general, stay in front of the sticks and not behind the sticks, people know what’s going on, you know what’s happening. I think we just have to come out and really just play our game. Last week, we didn’t play our game in no sort of fashion. I think once we come out and do that, we will be fine.”
The Texans are heavily reliant on three tight end sets. It’s become a large part of the offense.
“I mean, yeah, but if you look at some of our tendencies, we are more run heavy out of those sets,” Brown said. “I think breaking the tendency and we did some stuff with three tight ends trying to get some pass plays in there to so teams aren’t just like, ‘Hey, they got the three tight end set, we know what’s going on.’ I think we did some of that last year, but we only had 30 plays last week. There’s not a lot you can do with 30 plays.”
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