Texans backup running back Dameon Pierce had a big day against the Tennessee Titans. Should he get more carries going forward?
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00:00Feeds Pierce, through a hole, 15, 20, he's gone! 40, 50, the 40 of Tennessee, the 30,
00:08will he be caught? The 10, 5, rock and roll! Damien Pierce, coast to coast. Wow, like he
00:15was shot out of a cannon. That's Andre Ware and Mark Vandermeer. Mark was a little premature
00:21on that, wasn't he? My man said he was gone.
00:30On the techie. Back in the trunk! Is he gonna make it? Yeah, man. Damien Pierce had his
00:41second big game of the year. He had another one earlier this year against the Patriots
00:47and then yesterday, I think he knew he was gonna get a lot of time and he did his thing.
00:5415 carries, 176 yards, a touchdown, almost nine and a half yards per carry. He had him
01:02a big day, uh, for, uh, for the Houston Texans. So a big day for him, uh, yesterday and hell,
01:11I think that's probably, that's more than any player has got this year. I don't think
01:15Joe Mixon has hit the 176 mark. So big game for Damien Pierce. And to me, as I said, man,
01:22on the other side, like, you know, when you're frontline guys play a series or two, um, the
01:31guys are really going to impact as he pulled them down, turned into a preseason game, at
01:35least from the Texans perspective, not a lot to take out of the game. Right. But Clint,
01:43I think the Damien Pierce thing is at least something to look at. And to me, naturally
01:50to go here and you can jump in on this, those of you on YouTube and Twitch, uh, and, uh,
01:55those of you, uh, you know, on the, uh, text line as well, 7, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 10.
02:04Do you, do you look at this and look at the performance? And as they said, man, he shot
02:08out of the cannon. Like we could roll and he can go in any way. Did the performance
02:14yesterday of Damien Pierce make you think to yourself, maybe Slovic should find ways
02:21to use him more in the regular season. Maybe Slovic should find ways to get Damien Pierce
02:27in more and not just this thing be exclusively Joe Mixon, try to use Damien Pierce in the
02:34post season. Did his performance at all make you think that? No, no, I find ways to use
02:40him. And no, no, I don't, I don't like that. I think, um, would you change anything that
02:45you've been doing down the stretch and how you handle that? I would have more confidence
02:50Ron. Like I would have more confidence in what I'm calling on offense and my play calling
02:55and how many runs I'm going to call and what I'm doing offensively. When Damien Pierce
03:00is in the game, I would, I would definitely that, that performance definitely moved the
03:06needle for me as in, Hey, let's use Damien Pierce a little bit more, uh, in the first
03:14half of games. So that maybe Joe Mixon down the stretch is, is a little bit healthier
03:19in the fourth quarter, a little bit fresher in the fourth quarter. I think they've tried
03:22to do that sparingly throughout the game. I think Daria Gumbel-Wallace probably taken
03:26away some of the, some of the snaps from, from, uh, Damien Pierce, if we're being honest
03:30in some of those scenarios. But I think the reality of it is, is they, they feel like
03:36a lot, like I've felt like that they're wasting snaps when they put Damien Pierce in the game.
03:41A lot of the times they run the football. I think, I think yesterday went a long way towards
03:45if he's in the ball game for, you know, let's say 12 play plays. Don't be afraid to run it
03:52half the time. I don't, I don't, I don't think that they will be as hesitant to run the football
03:57with him in there as, as they probably were before you feel like human nature, you feel
04:01like with him in there before, like, Hey, this is going to have to be a CJ Stroud, heavy pass,
04:05heavy series, where I think you could probably just go business as usual with Damien in the
04:09game now. Yeah. And, and, and to the, I guess to kind of make it clear what we're saying, Clint,
04:15Damien Pierce has before yesterday's game and including the Baltimore game that got away from
04:21him where they took Joe out a little bit. He's got eight carries since Halloween.
04:30Like, like he's got eight of eight, eight carries since, since October 27th against,
04:38against the Colts. So they just haven't used him very much a ton at all.
04:44You know what? It made me feel, made me feel, man,
04:48he might have a real chance to give you a big spark and maybe some hidden yards or hidden
04:54touchdown in the, in the kickoff game. That's what made me feel right. Like I, like, to me, it's just,
05:03you would like it, but like you get in the playoffs and right now you only promise one.
05:11I honest to God, be straight with Joe mixing. Got every single, every single touch. Oh,
05:15I wouldn't, it wouldn't surprise me either. You know what I mean? Ever, every like hell,
05:21they basically were there, especially with Damien Pierce. Anyway. Um, I, I, I see champs.
05:26Like I said, anybody can play well when it doesn't matter. Um, I don't care. I mean,
05:31he sold some stuff, right? Like he just went 93 minutes just to just ran away from the ability
05:36to run away from him is a kickoff to me though. The problem is where I think like that, that run
05:42says more about the offensive line, getting him the crease, getting him to the second level.
05:45And then him obviously having the speed to get, take it to the house. I mean, the offensive line,
05:50I think did some really good things. Now you can argue that Simmons and Landry and, and sweat and
05:56company, they were just sack hunting. Maybe, I don't know. I hadn't seen the all 22. Uh, you can
06:01make the argument that maybe those guys quit cause they held their, they're one of the worst teams
06:04in football. Uh, but when it's all said and done, that offensive line did a much better job of
06:09getting him some space, getting him some creases, getting him to the second level
06:13multiple times, allowing him to be able to be more decisive. Well, allowing him to be who he is,
06:17which is a downhill runner and not, you know, that, that, that whether it was our old line or
06:22Tennessee's inability to clog it up, they didn't clog it. They didn't build the proverbial wall
06:27that he could just run into, right? That wasn't there. Our offensive line was able to create some
06:31creases and he took advantage of it. So I don't know if it's going to happen in the real world
06:35in the playoffs. I don't know if it's going to happen against the chargers, pretty good defense,
06:38but I know it's, it's got, they had to go a long way in terms of just your confidence in when you
06:44have to use Damian Pierce, what level of confidence do you have? Not go find more, you know, more
06:49plays to get him in the game, but when you do have to use him, what's your confidence level?
06:53I'd imagine it's probably because there was some other stuff like juice grugs playing right guard
06:58that that was something coming out where you're like, all right, that could be a change. I don't,
07:04I don't cause see like this person just texted him what was impressive
07:09and new deep yesterday was his patience. Uh, typically he runs straight ahead to the back
07:15of blockers and to the point Clint was making, and I'm sure you'll see the old 22 more, but if
07:21you watch it, um, it, there was a lot, there was a lot more room for him to be decisive and make
07:28moves. Like, I don't remember a ton of just cutbacks, like what the flow flow going this way
07:33and cut back for like, there was a lot where he could just bam, hit it, especially on that big run
07:39that he got. But no, I mean, I, I was happy for him and I was glad to see him, see him do that.
07:44And like I said, I do think there is a big potential help in the, in the, in the run game,
07:49or I mean, in the kickoff game where he can, he can maybe add field position or take one back.
07:55But to me, it wasn't enough to say his role changes. It wasn't enough for me to say,
08:01Hey man, Hey, let's get him about five in the game.
08:03Well, it's, it's hard to read what these guys are thinking, to be honest with you, but I,
08:07that would be a bit of a stretch.
08:08Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we'll see, maybe they will feel like we got to get DP some more.