Clowney finally dominating, as promised
Fourth-year Texans pass rusher has 8 sacks in last 8 games
We can say this now: That series of leg injuries Jadeveon Clowney endured through his first two NFL seasons only delayed his breakout as a premier edge rusher.
Now in his fourth pro season with the Houston Texans, the defensive end selected No. 1 overall in 2014 finally is realizing his great potential.
Entering Monday night’s game at Baltimore, Clowney has recorded a sack in four straight games and has eight in Houston’s last eight games. Since Week 3 his eight sacks are tied for second most in the league.
All this, while pass blockers have been able to concentrate on blocking him more than ever, what with Houston’s other Pro-Bowl-grade pass rushers — J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus — out for the season with injuries since early October.
“Right now he’s playing at a high level,” Texans head coach Bill O’Brien said. “He’s a very disruptive player. I love the way the defence is using him, putting him in different spots.
“The thing you love the most about (him) is how hard he plays on Sundays. He just plays a very violent, hard game on Sundays. He chases plays. He makes plays in the running game. He’s harassing quarterbacks. He’s doing a great job.”
Talent evaluators both in the NFL and in the media gushed at Clowney’s superior athleticism coming out of the University of South Carolina — maybe a oncein-a-generation talent, they said.
Now that he is healthy (a knee microfracture sidelined him for all but four games of his rookie season), Clowney has learned more of the nuances of NFL blocking schemes. Combine that with the 6-foot-5, 270-pound speedster’s talent and instincts, and what we’ve seen from him the past two months is what he can routinely be.
“One thing that’s hard to coach is instincts,” Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel said. “You can try to coach instincts and awareness, but it’s difficult. You can coach technique and fundamentals, but it’s hard to coach instincts and awareness.”
Clowney and Texans defenders need to have a strong game against the Ravens, who field one of the NFL’s worst offences. That’s because the Texans for the fourth straight game will start Tom Savage at quarterback, after rookie phenom Deshaun Watson tore an ACL in practice.
Savage is struggling, especially at avoiding ill-timed turnovers. Not just interceptions (three) but fumbles (seven). And he’s facing the league’s most frequent intercepting team of the past two seasons, the Ravens (with 34).
“Well, I think you got to have a feel for when the pressure’s getting around you. I think a lot of that comes with experience,” O’Brien said of Savage’s ball-security woes. “I think in practice you can never simulate how fast that rush is actually coming, and so when it’s in the game, you need to really speed up your alarm, your silent alarm. You really have to understand, look, it’s coming. And look, maybe we don’t have it blocked very well (and you’ve) got to protect the ball.
“That all comes with experience, and he knows that. He knows that he can’t do that anymore.”