Sunday's loss by the Texans was a tale of halves and halves not.

In the first half, the Houston battled with the Rams and went into the locker room trailing by a 9-7 margin.

After the intermission, Los Angeles pounced, scoring 21 points in the third quarter and adding a fourth quarter field goal, while holding the Texans scoreless. 

In the end, Houston went down 33-7, despite making a game of it early. Head coach Bill O'Brien pinned the defeat on himself, and said he "didn't do a good enough job."

The Texans were up 7-6, with 6:31 remaining in the second quarter, after quarterback Tom Savage hit Bruce Ellington for a 26-yard touchdown.

On the whole, Houston had 11 first downs before the break, compared to just six for the Rams. They were 57 percent on third down conversions, while limiting Los Angeles to 33 percent. They rolled up 78 rushing yards in the first half, while limiting the Rams to just 32.

"It wasn't like we were lighting up the world," Savage said. "But we were executing what we needed to do. Offensive line did a great job and receivers were getting open."

Wide receiver Will Fuller, who exited the game with a ribs injury just before the Ellington score, like what he saw from running backs Lamar Miller and D'Onta Foreman, who averaged 4.6 yards per carry in the first 30 minutes. Miller gained 64 of those yards on nine carries.

"We were running the ball really well early on," Fuller said. "Every time I looked up we were getting good gains. The running game worked real well."

After coming out of the locker room, the Texans defense allowed a 19-yard completion from Jared Goff to Cooper Kupp, but otherwise stiffened, forcing a Johnny Hekker punt. The Texans offense answered with a few first downs and a Shane Lechler punt, which was downed at the Rams' 4-yard line.  

Two plays and 94 yards later, the dam broke, and Los Angeles was up 16-7 after a Goff-to-Robert Woods 94-yard touchdown pass. Los Angeles would find the end zone two more times in the third to put the game out of reach.

"They started making some plays," cornerback Kareem Jackson said. "It happened so fast."

O'Brien said he knows what needs to be done for the Texans to get back in the win column in the weeks to come.  

"Keep grinding," O'Brien said. "We just gotta go back and correct the mistakes. We've got a lot of football left."

The Texans return home and will host the Cardinals next Sunday at NRG Stadium.