The Texans' lead running back left with a groin injury and didn’t return.
The Texans have spent the season using a two-man rotation at running back between Montgomery and Woody Marks. During the first three weeks, Montgomery played the first two drives, Marks joined for the third possession and Houston rotated by series from there. Last week, Marks entered the game on the second drive rather than the third, and that continued this week. Montgomery re-entered the game on the third possession, and that’s when he suffered his injury. Houston had Dare Ogunbowale as its third running back for this game, mostly for his special teams value. This left Marks as the feature back over the rest of the game. Marks took 47 of 48 snaps, only leaving the kneel down at the end of the game. Marks is an obvious waiver-wire target this week, as more fantasy managers have dropped him than picked him up in recent weeks. Long term, Marks has been closing the gap on Montgomery, and this is an opportunity for him to take a lead. Short term, Montgomery could miss some time. The Texans will likely bring Jawhar Jordan up from the practice squad so Marks doesn’t play 100% of snaps, but we’ll likely see Marks in a feature role rather than the 50/50 split Houston has been doing.