In their 10th loss of the 2022 season, the Houston Texans showed some signs of improvement but struggled to do enough things right to stay truly competitive against the Cleveland Browns. Quarterback Kyle Allen started his second game of the year in the matchup, and posted a horrific stat line that has some fans thinking that the team’s decision to bench Davis Mills may have been ill-conceived.
But head coach Lovie Smith isn’t so sure. In his post-mortem after the loss, he talked to reports about Allen’s performance, and gave them an in-depth answer when asked about the quarterback’s second interception of the game.
“Can’t throw the ball over the middle,” Smith explained of the pick. “Pretty simple on that. Most interceptions, it’s about decisions you make at the quarterback position. Holding it. Not throwing it. It always kind of comes down to that.
“Sometimes the best play that you can make as a quarterback is just not throw it and press it, because most of the game, it’s not like it was a game that got out of hand right away, we’re right in there. We’re in striking distance. We’re a touchdown away most of the game, so you are just hoping a couple of those passes would go to our guys.”
Allen isn’t a completed project at this juncture in his career, and Smith knows that he will need to continue coaching up his quarterback to get more competent performances out of him.
Hiccups are to be expected when a team starts a young signal-caller for the first time midway through the season, and it would seem that this is yet another situation where Houston will be forced to reap what they’ve sown as they continue to search for their second win of the season in their last remaining games.
