The Houston Texans are heading into their bye week with a 2-5 record and a bundle of issues to address in order to come out on the other side looking better than they have through seven games.
One of their most glaring issues focuses on one key factor this team just hasn't gotten right through the first half of the season: penalties.
Within the first seven weeks of the season, the Texans rank within the bottom four of the NFL for penalties called against them (58) and within the bottom two for yards given up from penalties (508).
DeMeco Ryans Sounds Off on Texans' Penalty Problems
Those issues really began to surface in a bad way within the Texans' latest loss against the New York Giants; a game in which Houston saw eight flags called against them for 80 yards. It was their fifth game of this season in which this team gave up 80 yards or more on penalties.
The penalty woes got so bad for the Texans that, after Houston's overtime loss against the Giants on Sunday, DeMeco Ryans would have some strong criticism for the team's consistent accumulation of flags, calling them "ridiculous" and hinting that there could be some personnel changes in store if it cuts down on those errors and miscues.
"Yeah, the penalties are ridiculous," Ryans said post-game. "It keeps happening over and over again. So, we've got to find a way to fix it, or get different people in so we don't have the same mistakes over and over again."
It's really tough to argue against Ryans here, because this has been a consistent problem for the Texans now, even dating back to last season.
Through seven games of the Texans' 2025 season, they had accumulated a slightly less 52 penalties for a total of 427 yards.
It's a similar rate of mistakes that Houston has inflicted upon themselves at the same point in the season. But after an entire 12 months have passed since the Texans were at that point in 2025, combined with the improvements that the team has made around the roster in the offseason, their miscues have only increased.
Really, that's inexcusable. And it's not any type of winning formula that'll get the Texans back on track from the three games under .500 that they sit at right now.
So how does Ryans plan to address those mistakes moving forward?
Well, the Texans head coach re-approached those penalty issues during his Monday press conference after Houston's loss to New York, where he emphasized the team's need to be both clean and smart–– particularly on the offensive line.
"We just have to make sure we're clean, especially when it comes to blocking. Knowing when to let up, knowing we can't, you know, hold guys."
"You can't do that. So, you have to be smart there. You got to know when to let up, especially when you're at the point of attack."
When taking a step back to look at those 58 penalties in total for the Texans on the season, a large chunk of them reside on the shoulders of their offensive front, or simply because of a miscue pre-snap.
19 of those 58 penalties have stemmed from the offensive line; roughly one-third. A combined 26 of them are coming from offensive holding or via false start, according to NFLPenalties.com.
Will the Texans need to switch up their personnel upfront to limit those problems moving in to the second half of the season? Does there need to be a change within the coaching staff to try and spark better results?
Honestly, everything needs to be on the table for the Texans to get things right here, most importantly on the offensive line. Houston does have close to two weeks before their next game against the LA Chargers arrives, so there's at least time on their side to make the necessary tweaks to avoid a repeat of this weekend.
But if that lack of discipline continues after the bye week, and those penalties keep continuously setting Houston's offense back at the start of drives, it's going to be even tougher to have any sense of optimism that this group can climb out of the 2-5 hole they're in right now.
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