The test of Tom
Until the defense faces Brady, it won’t truly know how good it is
With a revamped defense, Texans have good reason to believe they’re well-equipped to compete with Brady’s Patriots
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady was pummeled mercilessly for hours a year ago by an ultra-aggressive Texans defense that kept inflicting devastating blows that forced him to repeatedly cough up the football.
The legendary New England Patriots quarterback kept dragging himself off the ground, though, getting back in the huddle and rifling touchdown passes.
During the final minute of a dramatic 36-33 comeback victory over the Texans at Gillette Stadium, Brady pump-faked before delivering the game-winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandin Cooks behind Kareem Jackson as Corey Moore arrived too late to help out over the top.
Despite being sacked five times, hit eight times overall and fumbling three times, Brady was never intercepted and managed to throw five touchdown passes to remain a step ahead of the Texans.
Now, a revamped defense is about to find out how ready it is to match wits with Brady during the season opener in yet another encounter with the former Super Bowl and NFL Most Valuable Player.
The Texans have good reason to believe they’re well-equipped to compete with Brady.
Defensive end J.J. Watt, a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Pro Bowl outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney and former Pro Bowl alternate outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus are all healthy and primed to start Sunday.
The Texans signed former Arizona Cardinals All-Pro safety Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu to a one-year, $7.5 million contract in March, shifting Jackson from cornerback to safety to shore up one of the weakest positions on the defense a year ago.
Mathieu has injected energy and confidence into the secondary.
“I’ve played with some great defenses, some top-five defenses,” Mathieu said. “I feel like this team has the same capabilities. I could go up and down the list just naming a bunch of guys that can do a lot of good things really good.
“For us, it’s going to just come down to having some effort, having some swagger even though things may not have gone well last year, but still coming out this season with a lot of energy, a lot of swagger as if we made the playoffs. As a captain, as a leader, that’s kind of my responsibility.”
The Texans also signed former Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Aaron Colvin, a key member of the NFL’s topranked defense last season, to a fouryear, $34 million contract in March.
Plus, venerable defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is back in charge after operating as an assistant head coach last season while new Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel ran a unit that struggled mightily due to injuries and a failure to adequately replace cornerback A.J. Bouye.
‘His QB IQ is just insane’
If the Texans’ defense is as good in practice as it looks on paper, this could be one of the most formidable outfits in the league.
“Yeah, I think you said the right word, ‘potential,’ ” said veteran cornerback Johnathan Joseph, who was re-signed to a two-year, $10 million deal. “At the end of the day, we have to go out there and put the play on the field, let it speak for itself.
“You can’t keep talking about it anymore. Sunday, we get a chance to go out and let the real live bullets fly, so we’ll definitely have a chance to see how we match up every Sunday.”
Brady completed 25 of 35 passes for 378 yards last season against the Texans for a 71.4 completion percentage and a pristine 146.2 passer rating.
Brady sports an 8-1 record against the Texans, passing for 22 touchdowns and 2,565 yards in the regular season and postseason combined.
“His QB IQ is just insane and off the charts with regards to how he knows how to pick apart a defense,” defensive end Christian Covington said. “He’s been doing it his entire career, and he’s going to obviously continue do it for the rest of his career. That’s something we have to do a good job of being able to handle.”
The Texans have had virtually no success against the Patriots, with a 1-9 all-time record against them. The lone win came on Jan. 4, 2010 when New England was resting several key players.
“Obviously, the Texans have some bad history with the Patriots,” said Mathieu, who has never played against Brady. “For us, it’s just about going out there, trying to compete at a high level, obviously, knowing who our opponents are, knowing that Tom Brady is — it’s going to be a four-quarter game with him. So we just have to keep our head on a swivel, be ready for the misdirection plays and just make sure we’re communicating well.
“I mean, he’s a special player. Probably the greatest quarterback that we’ve ever seen play the game, so our hands are full. We know he’ll be ready. We have to be sure we’re extra ready.”
Healthy for a change
Brady had an epic game against the Texans last season despite all of the pressure they generated.
Prior to that game, Brady had only been sacked five times in a game six times before in his career. During those games, he had five touchdowns and three interceptions and averaged only 200 passing yards. He was nearly perfect against the Texans even though he was under constant duress and had no running game to support him as the Patriots finished with 59 rushing yards on 20 carries.
In the second half, Brady heated up considerably as he completed 15 of 19 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns. He was strip-sacked twice after halftime, but it didn’t stop him.
Brady this year is adjusting to a diminished receiving corps after losing Danny Amendola and Cooks and having Julian Edelman out for this game due to a four-game suspension for violating the NFL performance-enhancing drug policy.
“Well, any time you play Tom Brady it’s difficult because he’s so good,” Crennel said. “He’s been around a while and he’s seen just about everything. So you just have to play your game and if you can hit him, evidently you need to hit him more. If you can get some turnovers and keep him on the sideline, I think that will be beneficial to us.”
The Texans are considerably healthier heading into this game after losing Watt and Mercilus to seasonending injuries last season along with quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Watt was limited to three games last season due to a broken leg. Two years ago, Watt had surgery twice on a herniated disk.
To have Watt, Clowney and Mercilus all attacking the line of scrimmage this season could have a dominant impact provided that they remain healthy.
For three series against the Los Angeles Rams’ backups during the third preseason game, the Texans’ firstteam defense displayed a snapshot of its vast potential. With Watt, Clowney and Mathieu all on the field for their lone preseason game, the defense yielded just two yards in three series as Jackson intercepted a pass.
Watt acknowledged there are no guarantees the collection of defensive talent will mold into a group for the ages, but he’s optimistic about the camaraderie the Texans are building.
“Well, I can’t ensure it, I can’t ensure anything,” Watt said. “I think we’ve had great chemistry. I think we have a lot of great guys. I think that’s the biggest thing you can have, is have a good locker room, have guys that know what they’re doing, have guys that trust each other, believe in each other, and we have that.
“Until you go out there in the first game and you have live action coming your way and you have to deal with everything, the adversity and everything that comes with it, you’re not going to know. I think we have some great pieces and I think we have a lot of great guys who work very hard, and we’re looking forward to going out there and seeing what we’ve got on Sunday.”
Watt knows what’s what
In particular, Clowney’s star appears to on the rise heading into a contract year.
He had a career-high 9½ sacks last season, including two on Brady with a fumble returned for a touchdown in last year’s game, and finished with a career-high 21 tackles for losses, 21 quarterback hits and two forced fumbles.
“Only time will tell how good they’ll be,” Crennel said. “It’s a different year, and even though you have some of the same players, you have some guys coming off injury and you don’t know how they’re going to recover. Until you get them into the game and they have to take some hits and they have to plant and make sharp turns and all of those kinds of things, you don’t know if they’re really back, and I don’t know if they know if they’re really back.
“But once they get out into the game and play at the game speed, they find out if they’re back and what they’re capable of doing. Then, we’ll know what kind of players we got.”
With just eight games, 23 tackles and a combined 1½ sacks combined over the past two seasons and years of losing to Brady, Watt can’t wait to get out there Sunday and test his surgically repaired leg.
“It’s obviously, probably, the best quarterback of all time, one of the best coaches of all time, great team,” Watt said. “Obviously, their track record speaks for itself. They’re phenomenal. They’ve been doing things for a long time at a very high level.
“So it’s always exciting to get out there on the field and be able to play against a team of that caliber. Very much looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to get back on the field myself.”
As much hype as is surrounding the defense, Watt is aware that until the Texans defeat and regularly beat perennial contenders like the Patriots, then the team hasn’t really reached that level.
“Nobody’s proven anything yet,” Watt said. “So it’s our job to go out there and prove the type of team we want to be and who we want to be, and we’ve been working hard to do that. None of it really means a lot until you go out there on the first game and prove what you got.”