Fantasy football: Analyzing the Texans backfield without Arian Foster

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The Houston Texans are fading fast and falling hard after they entered the season as a Super Bowl contender. A quick 2-0 start helped keep those beliefs going, but seven-straight losses have left them wondering what the heck happened to their season that had such high hopes coming into the year.

To make matters worse, All-Pro running back Arian Foster aggravated a back injury two weeks ago during the Texans’ Sunday night game against the Indianapolis Colts. He only played the first series of Houston’s 27-24 loss.

Then came word Sunday morning Foster will undergo surgery either Wednesday or Thursday, and he’ll miss the rest of the 2013 season with his back injury. Foster touched the ball more than any other NFL back from 2010 through 2012, and that may finally be catching up to him since he’s forced to miss the remainder of the season.

He’s rushed for 542 yards and a 4.5-yard average per carry this year to go with two scores (1 receiving and 1 rushing), so there is a good amount of production to be made up for.

Here is the box score from Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals regarding who ran the ball:

The game was close throughout, but the Texans still opted to pass the ball far-more than run the ball. The team clearly feels confident in Case Keenum to allow him to air-it-out while giving running back Ben Tate 15-20 touches per game going forward.

That makes Tate a quality RB 2 option at best, and Dennis Johnson didn’t show enough to warrant a roster spot on even a deep dynasty league. For now, just stick with Tate as far as your Houston running backs go, and don’t expect a lot even from him.