Kevin Patra’s takeaways:
- Stroud dices up 49ers. That was more like it, Houston. C.J. Stroud turned back the clock to 2023, dicing up the Niners defense with an array of quick passes and savvy darts. For the first time all season, we got something closer to the offense we expected entering the campaign. Stroud was confident and decisive. He ate alive 49ers defensive backs with out-route after out-route. Even without Nico Collins, Texans receivers Xavier Hutchinson (five receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown), Jaylin Noel (6/53) and Jayden Higgins (4/34/1) continuously won off the line, giving Stroud easy targets. Getting the ball out quickly built Stroud’s confidence and helped avoid pressures that has killed Houston this season. That confidence built, Stroud stood tall when San Francisco did get pressure – 6 of 7 for 103 yards and a TD under pressure. With the play action alive, Woody Marks and the run game also got going, with the rookie back generating 111 scrimmage yards. Yes, it was against a banged-up Niners club, but if the offense plays like this, the Texans have a shot to dig themselves out of their early season hole.
- Slow start, sieve defense dooms Niners. San Francisco did next to nothing for the first 29 minutes of the first half, generating zero first downs and 15 net yards on its first three drives. Mac Jones’ group finally got a first down with under 50 seconds remaining. The QB made things interesting with a dart to George Kittle for a late TD. Jones made several courageous throws into traffic to keep the Niners within scoring range, but a fourth-quarter interception on a deep shot iced the loss. With an injured defense unable to slow Houston for most of the game, allowing six drives of nine-plus plays, the Niners’ offense needed to be near perfect. They weren’t on Sunday. With the injuries continuing to mount, general manager John Lynch might need to bring in reinforcements before the trade deadline.
- Houston’s D-Line dominates. Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter and the rest of the Texans’ defensive front controlled the contest. The crew might have only booked two sacks, but was constantly in Mac Jones’ face. Led by Anderson’s eight QB pressures, the Texans generated 22 QBPs on the afternoon. Jones repeatedly paid for the passes he got off. It wasn’t just the pressures where Houston’s D-line won. The crew stuffed Christian McCaffrey and the run game, holding the star back to just 25 yards on eight carries. This type of smothering effort, coupled with the offense coming out of its shell, is closer to what we expected from DeMeco Ryans’ team in 2025.
Next Gen Stats Insight for Texans-Niners (via NFL Pro): The Texans offense allowed a season-low 21.4% pressure rate against the 49ers in Week 8. The 49ers blitzed on a season-high 33.3% of dropbacks, recording 7 pressures on 14 blitzes (50.0%) compared to just 2 pressures on 28 dropbacks (7.1%) rushing four or fewer.
NFL Research: Despite being slowed, Christian McCaffrey became the fifth player ever with 5,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards in his career, joining Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk, Lenny Moore and Marcus Allen, and Tiki Barber.
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