Somewhat quietly, the Texans' offense has improved steadily over their nine-game winning streak to end the season.
It gets overshadowed by the Texans' shortcomings in the red zone, with penalties and odd stretches where the punters and kickers are way more active than they should be, ideally.
There's also the Texans' incredible top-ranked defense, which has become the unquestioned identity of this team.
But if you look closely, they are putting up more points and making more explosive plays downfield.
Going into their Week 10 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars (a win that started the streak), Houston ranked 24th in scoring offense; 19th in total offense and 18th in passing.
Going into Monday night's wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston ranks 13th in scoring offense; 18th in total offense and 14th in passing.
As far as explosive plays, perhaps the best display was the Texans' start to their road game against the Los Angeles Chargers a couple of games ago, when C.J. Stroud found rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel for deep touchdown passes on their first two possessions.
The running game is where things have stayed mostly the same, though rookie Woody Marks emerged as their clear No. 1 back, capable of getting critical yards to ice a game.
Still, Houston ranks 22nd in rushing offense and ranked 21st when it faced Jacksonville back in November.
Caley is much maligned, if you pay attention to fan comments online and even some of our feedback at SportsRadio 610.
A lot of it is fair. The Texans are still lousy in the red zone (30th) and on third down (23rd). The improvements there are marginal, as the Texans ranked dead last in red zone offense and next-to-last on third down going into Week 10 against Jacksonville.
They can also sometimes be slow getting from the huddle to the line of scrimmage and into their plays. They've been vulnerable to pressure at times as well.
No doubt Stroud's heard some of the criticism.
He was asked Thursday what stands out about the job Caley's done in his first year and gave a monologue on patience, brotherhood and staying the course.
“I think his ability to block out the noise and continue to go forward," Stroud said. "I think everybody in this day and age wants a microwave. They want to throw something in the microwave; let it heat up fast and be a new product. That's none of us. Football is an oven type of sport or whatever you use, a Crock-Pot, whatever any of y'all use. I think this team, we try to do our best to block out the noise and stay in our brotherhood and lean on one another. I thought he's done a great job of leaning on us, asking us what we like, even if it didn't work, like not running away from asking guys what they like and putting guys in position to do what we need to do best.
"We're still working. We still got a ways to go. But I'm just proud of that guy. I think he's done a heck of a job of calling it, of being honest and one thing I respect about (Caley) is he doesn't point fingers. If he does, it's in the right way. It's not like blame game. It's like, ‘Hey, you can be better here because I know you can.’ He's uplifting and I have a lot of love for that guy. He's done a heck of a job for us this year."
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