CLOWNEY, TEXANS FACE HUGE HURDLE
After homewin vs. Raiders, team will visit Patriots
Jadeveon Clowney was still in uniform when the phone rang.
The Houston Texans’ third- year defensive end had just served as the driving force in Saturday’s 27- 14 wild- card pummeling of the Oakland Raiders. The locker room was mostly empty. But even though Clowney had held a news conference and spent extra time chatting with reporters at his stall, another interview awaited on the other end of the line.
“When you ball,” said Clowney, his voice booming across the room as he spoke to NFL Network personality Deion Sanders, “you get the call.”
Clowney intercepted a pass midway through the first quarter to set up Houston’s first touchdown. He was credited with two batted balls and applied steady pressure on third- string quarterback Connor Cook.
Against a rookie passer who wasn’t being protected by Pro Bowl tackle Donald Penn ( knee injury), that was more than enough to help Houston advance. But will such a performance suffice against the No. 1- seeded New England Patriots in the divisional round? That’s a tougher sell.
Quarterback Tom Brady is on the short list of MVP candidates after throwing 28 touchdowns vs. two interceptions in 12 games, setting an NFL record for TD- to- interception ratio.
LeGarrette Blount led the league with 18 rushing TDs and racked up 1,161 yards. The Patriots ranked third in scoring, putting up 27.6 points per game.
Houston’s offense, effective enough Saturday, showed it can be a liability and is at its best when it simply avoids fatal errors. The Texans punted nine times Saturday. ( There were only three games in the regular season in which a punter had had as many as 10 in a game.) Quarterback Brock Osweiler accounted for two touchdowns but threw for only 168 yards while managing the game.
“Without turnovers, we can play with anybody,” Texans owner Robert McNair said afterward.
That puts a lot of pressure on Houston’s top- ranked defense, which yielded 301.3 yards per game in 2016. But Clowney has blossomed into the most imposing and important defender on this unit, with all- pro defensive end J. J. Watt out after back surgery. Clowney recorded only one tackle vs. Oakland, but his impact allowed his teammates to flourish as he occupied multiple double- teams by the Raiders. Whitney Mercilus and D. J. Reader combined for three sacks.
Along with the pressure, Clowney also disrupted Cook’s timing, helping create opportunities for a secondary that picked off two more passes.
“The defense did a phenomenal job,” veteran Texans left tackle Duane Brown said. “And that’s what we have come to expect from them all year. Clowney, he’s been doing what he’s been doing all year: being disruptive, being a game- wrecker.”
Clowney’s emergence as a Pro Bowler comes after the team drafted him first overall in 2014. Injuries cost him 15 games over his first two seasons, but he has justified the team’s faith in him after some outsiders suggested he was a bust.
“These guys picked me No. 1, and they saw something in me,” Clowney said in his news conference. “Things didn’t go well earlier inmy career, but I amon the right track now. Things are coming together. I am healthier. I am playing good ball, and we all have come together to play good defense.”
But the Texans know that virtually no one expects them to challenge the Patriots this weekend. Many analysts picked them to lose at home to the Raiders even though Oakland star quarterback Derek Carr was out with a broken leg.
Houston defensive end Antonio Smith, who dressed at his locker and overheard Clowney’s telephone interview from about 15 feet away, shouted, “J. D., if they picked the Raiders to win, hang up on ’ em.”
The early spread has the Patriots favored by as much as 16 points. They will host the divisional round game in Foxborough, Mass., where they spanked the Texans 27- 0 in Week 3 even though rookie Jacoby Brissett was making his first start while Brady was suspended and second- string quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was injured.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” McNair said. “We had two fumbles in the first quarter and gave up the ball on the 20- yard line. Doesn’t matter who you play, you can’t win playing like that.”
Now, a far better effort will be required to even be competitive against Brady and Co. in the postseason.
“It means a lot,” Mercilus said of Saturday’s win. “But it doesn’t mean squat at the end of the day, because we have to go out and do it again next week.”