Houston Texans running back Dameon Pierce made his first career start in the club’s 20-20 tie with the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at NRG Stadium.
The fourth-rounder was explosive and exciting in his preseason action with the Texans. In each of Pierce’s two preseason games he averaged above six yards a carry.
Pierce finally got his chance against the Colts, but the momentum from the preseason did not carry into the regular season. The former Florida product averaged 3.0 yards per carry as he had 11 rushes for 33 yards.
It wasn’t just that the run game was stifled by the Colts, who allowed just 77 yards on the Texans’ 28 attempts. Pierce saw Rex Burkhead take a majority of the carries and also see eight targets, catching five of them for 30 yards. Burkhead would be the Texans’ leading rusher with 14 carries for 40 yards.
According to coach Lovie Smith, who met with reporters after the game, the situations the Texans found themselves in throughout the game is what dictated Burkhead seeing more action than Pierce.
“As we look at the plays now, Rex got a chance to carry the ball more,” Smith said. “Passing plays, passing situations, Rex was our lead back in that situation, so that’s kind of what happened. In an ideal world, of course, when you have a lead, you would like for that not to be the case, but once they came back at the end, that’s when the numbers started changing a little bit.”
The Colts scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game 20-20. As the Texans struggled to get anything going on offense in the fourth quarter, Pierce didn’t see any opportunities.
Despite Smith explaining that Burkhead was simply taking snaps in situations that favored his presence, the reality is Pierce was stymied at 3.0 yards a carry, and only caught a 6-yard pass. The rookie wasn’t as impactful for the run game in his first start as expected, but with 16 games left to play, Pierce still has plenty of time to get it going.
