“It’s being evaluated right now. We’ll have more news for you, but yeah it was serious. It was a tough thing to see, tough thing to see,” Texans’ Head Coach Bill O’Brien told the media after the conclusion of the game.
Miller, 28, took a handoff from Deshaun Watson and ran to his right. A defender hit Miller on the left knee as he planted his leg and immediately grabbed at the injured knee. Miller was tended to by the Texans’ athletic trainers and Texans’ doctor Walt Lowe before he was carted to the locker room.
“It’s very tough. You have a guy that is so special to our team, that’s a professional, that’s about his business each and every day,” Watson said. “Anybody that gets hurt it’s tough, but he’s one of the guys that has a lot of energy and power for this team. It was tough to see him go off in the cart. Our prayers are over him, we’re going to be right there with him every step of the way.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Texans fear that Miller tore his ACL during the play. Miller made his first Pro Bowl appearance last year as he rushed for 973 yards and had six total touchdowns in 14 games for the Texans. Miller has never missed more than three games in a single season during his seven-year NFL career.
“It’s very difficult to lose a guy like Lamar for a lot of reasons; he’s a great pro, he’s an awesome guy in the locker room. No excuse for how we played tonight, but that had an effect on our team because of who Lamar is, but we’ll deal with it, we’ll overcome it and keep plugging away,” O’Brien added
With Miller seemingly done for the season, Duke Johnson Jr. and the rest of the Texans’ running backs will have an opportunity to showcase their abilities.
“Duke has come in here and learned the offense and has done a good job. We’ve got a number of guys,” O’Brien said. “We have Taiwan Jones and other guys who have played well this training camp. It’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together.”