Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon left the game in the third quarter of Sunday night's game against the Chicago Bears with an apparent lower-body injury. Houston announced that Mixon is questionable to return to the game with an ankle issue, via the team's official X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) account.
“Texans Injury Update: #28 RB Joe Mixon is questionable with an ankle injury.”
Before he suffered the injury, Mixon was able to compile 20 rushing yards on seven carries. He also had 25 receiving yards on three catches and five targets.
Texans' injury fears on Joe Mixon allayed after runing back returns to game
As an important piece of Houston's high-powered offense, Mixon has the Texans hoping that he did not suffer anything serious. Any fears about such was immediately extinguished, with Mixon returning to the game in time for the fourth quarter, as noted by Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Mixon sustained the injury after he was taken down by Bears linebacker TJ Edwards on what appeared to be a hip drop tackle. That defensive tactic is now illegal in the NFL but was not called as one during that play where the Texans tailback got hurt. Mixon then left the field and went inside the blue tent before being taken to the locker room for further evaluation.
The Texans were a bit thin in the running back position entering the Bears game, with Dameon Pierce ruled out with a hamstring injury, leaving Mixon, Dare Ogunbowale, and Cam Akers as the active tailbacks for the contest.
Mixon, who signed a three-year deal worth $25.5 million with Houston last March after seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, was coming off a sensational debut for the Texans in Week 1's 29-27 win on the road versus the Indianapolis Colts, where he racked up 159 rushing yards and a touchdown on 30 carries.
Fans react to Mixon's injury, Bears' hip drop tackle
Fans on social media did not hide their true feelings about Mixon's injury and the tackle that caused it.
“Dirty f**king tackle, the fact that doesn't get called is absurd to me. Most clear hip drop I've seen since I learned what it was last year.” – @TexanicoYT
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“Thought hip drop tackles were banned” – @realravensfan2
“NFL gotta fix this Hip Drop bulls**t” – @HowUBenFeller
“How are they going to put a no hip drop tackle this year and not call it???? Refs are atrocious.” – @Adrian__S7
“A hip drop tackle injured a player on national tv. The NFL will have their officials call 5 of these per game next week. @NFLOfficiating” – @Intimidator21
“I love the NFL obsessing with eliminating the hip drop tackle with a new rule that is enforced by 0% of officiating crews, lmaooooo” – @PapaRossiSlam
