Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills used one word to summarize his performance against the Denver Broncos in Week 2: “Solid.”
The second-year signal caller played it safe as he completed 19 passes on 38 attempts for 177 yards with a 63.2 passer rating. While he had no giveaways of any kind, he also had zero scoring plays.
Although Mills evaluated his effort rather quickly following the 16-9 loss to the Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High Sunday afternoon, he knows there are areas for improvement.
“Obviously I want to go see the film,” Mills said. “I know there’s missed opportunities that we have, some miss throws that I got to do better with, but I think as a team we’re putting ourselves in the situation to win these games we’ve just kind of take advantage of it.”
Arguably the biggest area where the Texans have to improve is on third down. The Texans were 2-13 on third downs and only picked up 15 first downs the entire game. The majority of those first downs came from the ground game as the Texans’ rushing attack produced seven first downs.
Coach Lovie Smith acknowledged that Mills needs to improve, but so does the rest of the team in his estimation.
“We need more from Davis but it starts up front first, and ‘Dave’ is having more time,” said Smith. “Running game being a little bit more productive. Opening up some of the passing lanes. I understand when we’ve won the game, we’re going to give the quarterback a pat on the back but there’s so much more than just Davis Mills. Yes. Davis needs to get better, like we all need.”
The Texans fall to 0-1-1 on the season and have a Week 3 showdown with the Chicago Bears (1-1) Sept. 25 at Solider Field. Houston has plenty of season left to still apply their improvements.
