For the first two games of the preseason, Gary Kubiak’s Houston Texans and quarterback David Carr gave hints that they were picking up the nuances of the West Coast offense. Even with the “yes, but” disclaimers that come with games in August, the Texans’ 51 points in exhibition victories over Kansas City and St. Louis were cause for cautious optimism.
But then, in the “homecoming” of Houston’s head coach and a virtual busload of former Broncos coaches and personnel Sunday night, the Texans couldn’t move the ball against the Broncos when both teams had their starters on the field at Invesco Field.
The Texans had only 96 yards of offense in the first half of their 17-14 loss to the Broncos, and Carr’s dumpoffs and short tosses didn’t turn into anything of significance. He also threw an interception deep in Houston territory that led to a Denver field goal.
“I thought our defense played exceptional to keep us in that ballgame, as ugly as we started on the offensive side of the ball,” Kubiak said.
Yes, it turned out to be a three-point loss on the road after the baseball caps went on starters’ heads, but the Texans are still looking for Carr to step up and prove he won’t go down as a disappointment, after going first overall in the 2002 draft, before Houston had played a game.
Backup Sage Rosenfels has looked good in the preseason, and did again in taking the Texans in for a late touchdown that made it close, but he has been doing it against reserves – a fact that often goes overlooked.
“You learn something new every week in this offense,” Carr said after the game. “You look across the ball and you see a team that’s been running the same offense for 25 years, and when you look over at us, we’ve been running it for six months. We have some things to work on. I thought we hung in there pretty good. We just have to find a way to get more touchdowns.”
Kubiak said, “A lot of things that happened early in the game are not David’s fault. The interception, I have to see the film, but I think he was dumping the ball down to Wali (Lundy, a rookie running back) and kind of put it on his back shoulder, and the ball got kind of tipped around.
“But we have to protect the ball. He’s in charge of protecting the football, whether it’s getting his hands on a keeper … or dumping the ball off to the back. So that’s his responsibility, and he’s got to understand that.”
Carr said, “What you have to do is not try and press. What’s funny is that we were not trying to do that. I was trying to check the ball down to the fullback (on the interception), and it ended up getting tipped in the air. You’d almost rather sling it downfield and see what happens.”
The quarterback-coach relationship is a work in progress.
“It’s awesome, the composure and stuff he has on the headset, talking to you between the snaps,” Carr said. “That’s the kind of thing that goes unseen, with the comfort level he has with the offense. It was tough tonight. We were going up against a defensive scheme that has seen this offense before for a long time.”
Terry Frei can be reached at tfrei@denverpost.com.
