After Further Review: Why Texans' defense is struggling and how to fix it
How can a defense with J.J. Watt and six other first-round picks be struggling to generate sacks and stop teams? Here's why and how to fix it.
By
Pete Prisco
•
11 min read
How can a defense with the best defensive player in the league look so bad?
That’s a question many are asking this week about the Houston Texans. Even with J.J. Watt, the game’s best defensive player, plus six other first-round picks on the unit, the Texans are struggling.
This was a team that many predicted could be downright dominant on defense in 2015, yet they enter Week Six ranked 24th in scoring defense and 28th in sacks per pass play.
When the Texans signed veteran nose tackle Vince Wilfork this spring, adding him to a front with Watt and pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney, who was coming off a major knee injury, the thinking was the Texans would be scary good up front.
They have six sacks as a team. Six. They’ve had little or no pass rush, even with Watt getting four sacks. Teams are doubling and tripling Watt, and others aren’t winning. But even he’s been handled when single-blocked at times.
A lack of pass rush has made a takeaway-happy team from 2014 into one that can’t take the ball away. The Texans had 34 takeaways in 2014, best in the league. In 2015, they have two, the worst in the league.
There are other issues. Among them:
They are giving up the big play. The Texans have given up 16 pass plays of 20 yards or more -- tied for 11th in the league -- and four of 40 yards or more, which is tied for ninth in the league. I will show some of the reasons why here later in this breakdown. The coverage has had issues at times, in part because the pass rush isn’t there.
The run defense has been just OK. They are 22nd in the league in total rush defense, but 11th in yards per rush. One of the big problems -- and he is indeed big -- has been Wilfork. He just hasn’t been that good. Centers are turning him at the point, which is never a good thing. I will show some of those plays here as well. Linebacker Brian Cushing has been just OK as well. And his calling card is his run defense.
The sacks just aren’t coming and the pressure isn’t great. The Texans had 38 sacks last season. They have the six this season. With Watt getting so much attention, that’s a major problem for this defense. Clowney doesn’t have a sack yet, but he’s getting close. His rush is coming as his play is improving on a weekly basis. You can see his confidence in his surgically repaired knee growing each week. He’s really played well against the run, one of the few on the defense, besides Watt, who has.
Let’s start with a look at the lack of sack production as the first of the Texans issues. After all, it’s a passing league and if you can’t influence the quarterback consistently, you can’t win. They are getting the quarterback down an average 1.2 times per game. That’s problematic.
From studying the tapes, teams are getting the ball out quickly against them and Watt is getting a lot of extra attention, sometimes even more so than usual. That should create one-on-one situations elsewhere, but when that happens guys aren’t winning. Watt has also been blocked some in those one-on-one battles.
Here’s a look an incomplete pass by the Colts, but I wanted to show just what Watt is dealing with and why it’s strange that the Texans are using so many three-man rushers like on this play.
On the play, Watt was lined up on the left side, but you can see that the Colts weren’t going to let him win. They chipped him with tight end Dwayne Allen, who actually knocked him down. Watt got up and had guard Hugh Thornton and tackle Joe Reitz both waiting there for him. Jared Crick was being doubled inside of him and Whitney Mercilus was getting handled pretty much by Anthony Castonzo.
The Texans actually showed a five-man rush, but dropped out of it with the two linebackers. Counting Allen’s chip, it left seven to block three. You can’t win many battles that way, even with Watt.
Colts quarterback Matt Hasselbeck needed more patience on this play, but he threw early and the pass went off the fingers of Donte Moncrief. But it displays some of the Texans’ pass rush issues. There are too many times where teams add extra guys to block Watt, and nobody else is winning.
The Texans have lined up Clowney and Watt on the same side in some looks, and that seems to help alleviate that issue some. That needs to happen more.
Here’s another look at Watt getting the attention of two blockers on a short roll his way.
The pass-coverage issues are also sometimes about blown assignments and allowing for teams to pick off secondary players. Against Atlanta two weeks ago, the Falcons ran a pick play with tight end Levine Toilolo that helped free Leonard Hankerson for a 55-yard gain. It was an easy pitch-and-catch in the middle of the field that turned into a huge play.
Also in that game, Matt Ryan hit Devonta Freeman for a 44-yard gain on a wheel route. That was clearly a blown assignment. Here’s a look:
On this play, the Texans were in man coverage with a single-high safety and they pressured with five. The Falcons called the right play, with Freeman sneaking out of the backfield to the right side of the defense with nobody around him. You can see there was miscommunication between Cushing and rookie linebacker Benardrick McKinney. One of them had to cover Freeman, and it was probably McKinney. Little mental mistakes like that can turn into big gains. It’s happened too often with this defense.
Here's another look at that same play, from the end zone:
But it all starts with the run defense. You would think with Wilfork’s power, Watt’s all-round game and Cushing’s solid run defense over the years, the Texans would be tough to run on consistently.
While the per-carry average isn’t that bad, teams have stuck with it and had success moving the ball on the ground. At times, the holes have been huge.
Wilfork is major reason why. When the New England Patriots let him leave this year, they had to know his game was in decline. It’s not that he’s bad, but he is getting moved, which is something that didn’t happen much with the Patriots. He could always be counted on to clog things up.
Here are several plays where Wilfork is getting blocked, and it helps open up the rest of the run.
The first (below) is a 16-yard touchdown run by Freeman two weeks ago. On this play, the Falcons did a great job of blocking to free up Freeman. Left guard Andy Levitre blocked down on Wilfork, and he actually had him turned. That enabled center Mike Person to get out on Cushing, who overran the play and gave him an easy angle. Jake Matthews pushed Crick inside and McKinney missed a tackle in the hole. The result was an easy touchdown run.
Here’s another touchdown run, this time by Colts back Frank Gore last week.
On this play against a goal-line defense (below), Wilfork was handled by center Khaled Holmes, who isn’t exactly known for his power at the point. Holmes turned Wilfork, which prevented Watt from getting in on the play -- even though he beat Reitz hard inside. On the other side, Crick and McKinney were getting handled and Allen came inside to block safety Andre Hal. They pulled tight end Jack Doyle to block Mercilus on the edge while Cushing ran to the wrong gap.
The result was an easy score.
One thing that can help the run defense is the continued play of Clowney. He has become a force in the run game, which has been overlooked in all the talk of how he doesn’t have a sack.
On a play last week against the Colts (below), a zone run to the left at Clowney, he attacked Castonzo, who is a tough-guy tackle. Clowney exploded into Castonzo, driving him back, which allowed Clowney to get rid of him and make the tackle on Gore. Another interesting thing from the play, look how rookie nose tackle Christian Covington is involved in the action, much better than Wilfork has been. Maybe it’s time he gets more snaps. Here's a look at the play:
One other thing I’ve noticed from the Texans tape is how much more Watt is on the ground this year. Maybe it’s because of all the attention, but there have been times when he’s been on the ground in single-block situations.
Here’s a look at a play from the Colts game where a double team put him on his back.
There’s no real fault in that, other than he’s played above that the past couple of seasons as he dominated the league.
So is it fixable? The answer is yes. But I think several things need to happen:
One, Clowney and Watt need to line up more next to each other in passing situations.
Two, maybe play Covington more in the run game on early downs.
Three, use three-man rushes less than they have. It’s easy to double and triple Watt when there isn’t much else coming at the quarterback. Why not try and get him more single situations by being creative?
As Clowney, McKinney and fellow rookie, corner Kevin Johnson, improve, the defense will as well. It’s only a matter of time before Watt gets it going. He just needs help. When it all comes together, the turnovers will likely come and this defense will start to look like the one many expected to see.
Right now, it looks like anything but a good defense.
More observations from watching tape this week:
The Seahawks defense gave up 17 points in the fourth quarter to the Bengals in last week’s loss to Cincinnati. So everybody wants to know what’s wrong. Here are some things from that game that stood out:
Strong safety Kam Chancellor was bad. The Bengals did a wise thing and got him involved more in coverage by spreading out the Seattle defense. When he was matched on Mohamed Sanu in man coverage on a blitz, Sanu beat him for a big play. On Tyler Eifert’s first touchdown, Chancellor was in zone coverage and jumped the underneath route, which allowed Eifert to get behind him. Bad play.
Surprisingly, he also struggled in the run game. He admitted this week that he didn’t play well. But I think getting him involved in coverage is the right way to attack the Seahawks. He is so good as the extra player in the box. He is more linebacker than safety, so why not make him cover?
Corner Cary Williams struggled. He was torched for much of the day and had a bad pass-interference penalty. The Seahawks finally did something they don’t normally do, which is to put Richard Sherman on A.J. Green wherever he went. That’s because Green abused Williams, who teams will attack week in and week out.
The front wasn’t as disruptive in large part because the Cincinnati offensive line did a good job. Left tackle Andrew Whitworth had a really good game, except for a holding penalty that wiped out a long touchdown pass. Michael Bennett, who is one of the best defensive players in the league, wasn’t as dominant in large part because of Whitworth outside and guards Kevin Zeitler and Clint Boling inside.
Safety Earl Thomas had a pick, but he hasn’t been the same sideline-to-sideline player we’ve come to expect from him in the middle of the field. His pick, in fact, came when he was playing a two-deep safety look. Thomas had off-season shoulder surgery, and that could be part of the reason why he isn’t the same player this season so far.
Bengals safety Reggie Nelson had a rough day against Seattle. On Russell Wilson’s touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse in the first half, Nelson bit on the underneath route, the same route Dre’ Kirkpatrick was covering. It made for an easy throw from Wilson to a wide-open Kearse. Later when Thomas Rawls ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run, Nelson took a bad angle as Rawls ran by him. Then when he caught up, he tried to poke the ball loose and Rawls shook him off at the 20 and ran into the end zone. Nelson is normally a rangy safety who plays a huge role in the Bengals defense. They need him to be better, especially with Kirkpatrick off to a slow start.
Keep an eye on Bengals defensive tackle Brandon Thompson. The backup inside is starting to show major improvement. He did a lot of good things against the Seattle line.
