Special Edition: Rodela’s Reads on the Houston Texans Offense
By now we have all heard that the Kansas City Chiefs ended last Sunday with a huge comeback victory over the division foe San Diego Chargers. It is almost a full week later and I am still riding the magic carpet that was made available to all Chiefs fans the moment Alex Smith crossed the goal line in overtime. As much as I am enjoying the ride I know it is time to come down and look to the Houston Texans, a team that has made many changes to their roster since we last saw them in the Wild Card round of the playoffs this past season, a 30-0 blowout in favor of our Chiefs.
The Texans have been a good team for a few years now, leaning mostly on the defense in a large part due to spotty quarterback play and injuries at running back. For the past 2 seasons coach Bill O’Brien has led his team to 2 finishes of 9-7 with 6 different starting quarterbacks. The biggest names that have lined up behind center are Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Hoyer; Ryan Mallett, TJ Yates, Case Keenum and Brandon Weeden round out the group of signal-callers to start games for the team in 2014 and 2015. Not exactly a Pro Bowl roster in my opinion, and apparently not in the opinion of O’Brien either because he made it a point to outbid the Broncos for former heir apparent Brock Osweiler, a quarterback he had never met in person.
Osweiler had a decent half of a season throwing for nearly 2000 yards, 10 TD’s and 6 picks while completing 61.8% of his passes in Denver. It seemed like a no-brainer he would be calling plays for the Broncos this year but that may have changed when he was benched for an aging Peyton Manning whose skills were on the decline. Instead, he signed a 4 year $72 million contract with $37 million guaranteed over the first 2 years.
Lamar Miller and Jeff Allen joined Osweiler in Houston this offseason to add to premier WR DeAndre Hopkins. Speedy first round pick WR Will Fuller and third-round pick WR Braxton Miller were added to a receiving core that also included last year’s third-round pick WR Jalen Strong. On paper, this offense could be very potent so I went digging for some insight into last weeks game against the Chicago Bears and what I found was potential to live up to the expectations. Here is the play by play for last week, a heavy dose of Lamar Miller throughout the game and an early short passing game to set up the deeper throws as the game wore on.
The video here is every passing play from last week and what really stood out to me was the need to tackle. If the Chiefs defense does not wrap up, the WR’s for the Texans will make them pay for it. DeAndre Hopkins made some very nice catches on the sidelines while under tight coverage. Will Fuller is fast, Gaines is going to have his hands full. Osweiler is confident in his receivers and is willing to make almost any throw in tight windows which could lead to some ball hawking from the reigning interception co-champ Marcus Peters.
I could only find a few runs for Lamar Miller, but what I found was just as much a Jeff Allen highlight tape as it is for Miller. Miller had 28 carries for 108 yards and 4 catches for another 11 yards for a total of 32 touches and 119 yards. He is going to be featured all game so the defensive line needs to get more penetration than was generated last week. I think stopping Miller is going to be the key to the game for the defense as the passing game really got started last week as a result of the Bears having to respect Miller’s ability to run up the gut.
If this offense is allowed to get going early it will be a long day for the Chiefs defense, a unit that will be looking to pick up where it left off with the Chargers last week in that improbable comeback victory. If they play like the team that finished the game they should be able to find success against this talented offense, if they come out like they did in the beginning of the game…well not so much.
So what do you think, which defense will show up to play the Houston Texans? Does the big play potential of the Texan’s offense worry you? How about Miller finding success grinding it out up the middle? Which player on the Chief’s defense needs to have the biggest game?