‘Calm, cool, collected,’ Davis Mills delivers sharp performance, Texans fall to Bears in weather-shortened game

CANTON, Ohio – Before a heavy rainstorm and lightning strikes in the area ultimately ended the football game, Davis Mills was rifling passes and improvising to lead the Texans’ offense.

Mills delivered an impressive performance in the Texans’ weather-abbreviated Hall of Fame game against the Chicago Bears at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Texans’ backup quarterback completed 10 of 13 passes for 102 yards, one touchdown pass to tight end Teagan Quitoriano and no interceptions for a crisp 124.5 passer rating. The game was halted in the third quarter by the NFL with the Texans trailing Chicago, 21-17.

“Davis did a really nice job, really commanding the offense, really being efficient in the passing game,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “I like what Davis did tonight and it’s something that he can continue to build on.”

The way that Mills engineered a game-opening, 13-play, 74-yard drive for a touchdown capped by his nine-yard score to Quitoriano, who injured his knee in the first half and didn’t return, was impressive.

He connected with four different receivers, including 12-yard and 11-yard passes to Quitoriano and rookie tight end Cade Stover.

“Davis was great,” said wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson, who led the Texans with five catches for 56 yards on six targets. “Cool, calm and collected guy, that’s how he was in the huddle. You could see it in the play.”

Mills went off-schedule to elude pressure and find wide receiver Ben Skowronek on a 27-yard jump ball that represented the Texans’ longest play of the night.

“It’s a great opportunity to go out there and play live football,” said Mills, a former third-round draft pick from Stanford who backs up Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud. We’ve been grinding so far during camp and it’s a battle each and every day going against our own guys.

“So, it’s fun to actually go out there and play a different opponent, different scheme and really see how the hard work we are putting in pays off. Obviously, we still have a long way to go but I thought the guys that stepped up today played well and executed their job.”

The Texans ran a limited version of their offense, because they’re playing the Bears in the second week of the regular season in a Sunday night game at NRG Stadium.

“Not much, especially because we play these guys again,” Mills said. “We didn’t want to show too much. Obviously, we’re kind of running the foundation of our offense. The scheme that we install on those first couple of installs, so I think we executed that at a high level, for the most part. I think there’s still some stuff we have in the bag when we see these guys again pretty soon.”

Skowronek, acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Rams this offseason in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick, saw a lot of positive things from Mills.

“I thought he was real efficient,” Skowronek said. “Real efficient, got out there, progressed through reads well and delivered the ball.”

Mills showed a presence before, during and after the play.

“He did good,” Texans guard Kenyon Green said. “He commanded the huddle. He made sure the ball was distributed. He was a leader out there. It was good.”

The Texans ultimately didn’t get to finish the game, but they accomplished most of the things on their agenda.

‘It was a good opportunity,” Ryans said. “All of our guys probably didn’t get as much as we would have liked because of the weather, but things happen, things out of our control. Our guys have been through that tough weather in Houston things we can’t control, but no one complained about it. We just keep moving forward.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com