Colts, Texans a world apart in QB protection

Sacks might have a lot to do with who wins the Colts-texans AFC wild-card playoff game Saturday in Houston.

See, there’s this wee little discrepancy.

Indianapolis allowed the fewest sacks of any NFL team in the regular season. Andrew Luck was tackled behind the line of scrimmage 18 times. In contrast, Houston allowed the most in the NFL as Deshaun Watson was sacked 62 times.

The discrepancy is that enormous. Houston’s porousness is nowhere near the NFL single-season record: the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles gave up 104 sacks.

How well the Texans’ offensive line can protect Watson might go a long way toward determining which team advances to play next weekend in the divisional playoffs. These AFC South rivals kick off wild-card weekend Saturday at Houston’s NRG Stadium.

If Indy wins, it takes on the Chiefs Jan. 12 in Kansas City. If Houston wins, it faces the Patriots Jan. 13 in Foxborough, Mass.

If the Colts’ pass rush was more formidable, perhaps you’d have heard a lot more about this sacks-allowed contrast all week. But the Colts’ defence ranks about middle of the pack in sacks, tied for 19th with 38.

Still, Texans head coach Bill O’brien continues to be concerned about the pounding his second-year passer is taking.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” O’brien said this week. “We’re working on that. We’re working very hard on that. We don’t want him to take unnecessary hits … whether it’s a protection mistake, a protection technique or him maybe (needing to get) rid of the ball a little bit quicker.”

Although he got hit so badly in an early season win over Dallas that medical personnel were checking his heart rate on the sideline, Watson this week vowed that physically, “I feel great. I feel really good.”

That would be much more believable coming from Luck. He got beat up a lot in his early years in the NFL, too, when he took longer to make decisions in the pocket and when he worked behind poor offensive lines.

This year, behind a vastly upgraded offensive line, Luck has been sacked on only 2.7 per cent of his dropbacks. Those linemen deserve at least to have their names mentioned: eighthyear left tackle Anthony Castonzo, rookie left guard Quenton Nelson, third-year centre Ryan Kelly, fourth-year right guard Mark Glowinski and rookie right tackle Braden Smith.