Houston's defense looked a lot better against a Chargers team still searching for its first win of the season.
The Texans took a 24-9 lead into the locker room against the Chargers, and suddenly the Houston defense looks like it has answers it didn't have a week ago.
Los Angeles came into this one at 0-7, sitting in fourth place in the AFC West and dragging a seven-game losing streak into SoFi Stadium. The Chargers have been bad on offense all season, averaging 15.0 points per game, the lowest in the league, with 168 passing yards per game and a 34.1 percent third-down rate that both rank near the bottom of the NFL. None of that improved in the first half.
Houston, at 2-5 and second in the AFC South, has had its own issues this year but came in with the better passing attack, averaging 253 passing yards per game. Whatever had been going wrong for the Texans defense did not show up against a Chargers offense that keeps finding new ways to stall out.
The second half will decide whether Los Angeles can salvage anything from a season that has offered little so far.