NFL GAME PREVIEW

Falcons to strive for consistency against Texans

Field Level Media

October 03, 2019 at 1:32 am.

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson was back on the field just hours after Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, looking for ways to improve.

The Texans (2-2) hope the extra effort will pay off Sunday when the struggling Atlanta Falcons (1-3) visit NRG Stadium.

Watson has been sacked 18 times this season, third most in the NFL. While his offensive line shouldered significant blame last year when he endured a league-high 62 sacks, the burden has slowly shifted to Watson, with some blaming his tendency to hold the ball too long as central to his own undoing.

Watson, to his credit, hasn’t shied away from acknowledging that he has plenty more to discover.

“However long I play this game, I’m always going to continue to learn and continue to grow in that area,” he said. “I’m never going to be perfect or feel like I’ve got it. I’m going to always find new pieces and techniques that the defense is doing to try to help myself see what they’re doing and try to execute.”

Injuries on the offensive line placed Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan in harm’s way in the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings and again last week in a 24-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

The Falcons opened the season having replaced three starters up front only to lose rookie right guard Chris Lindstrom to a broken left foot after just 45 snaps. Jamon Brown was summoned to replace Lindstrom and, not at all surprising given all the shifting, Ryan was sacked four times.

Things took a turn for the worse against the Titans when the Falcons lost Brown (concussion) and center Alex Mack (elbow) to injuries. Both were non-participants in practice Wednesday, leaving the Falcons in position to lean deeper into their offensive line depth.

“It’s been evident that we’ve needed that depth so far this year, to have talented guys to step in and fill where needed,” Atlanta coach Dan Quinn said. “That certainly was the case when Chris went down and Jamon moved into that spot, and when Jamon was injured in the game, we had to go through that again. You don’t want to get into that space where you lose some of the continuity, but I thought (depth) was an important piece to what we needed to do offensively.”

What remains for the Falcons to do against Houston is to find the consistency that has eluded them thus far.

Whether by turnovers (minus-5 margin) or penalty (42 compared to 27 for their opponents), the Falcons have repeatedly found ways to stymie their progress. With just 70 points through four games, Atlanta ranks 26th in the NFL in scoring, which doesn’t really represent an offense laden with star power.

“I think there’s a lot of reasons why we haven’t won games and probably each of them is different for each of those games,” Ryan said. “The guys that we have, we’ve got to find a way to get it done. We’ve all got to play better and put ourselves in better positions. But more than anything, it comes down to being more consistent and doing the little things over and over really well.

“Good football teams do that and we’re certainly capable of doing it. We haven’t done it, but we’ve got to go out there and change that narrative.”