NEW ATTITUDE
Three interceptions, stopping the run shows reversal of 2020 woes
David Culley sees his defense pass muster in debut.
To show just how far the Texans defense has come under new coordinator Lovie Smith, check out what they accomplished in Sunday’s 37-21 victory over Jacksonville at NRG Stadium.
In 2020, the Texans were the worst team in the NFL against the run, allowing 160.3 yards a
game. And they recorded only nine takeaways, second-fewest in the league since 1980.
As three-point underdogs in their home stadium, the Texans limited Jacksonville’s running game to 76 yards and intercepted three of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s passes. Believe it or not, that’s the same number they intercepted all of last season.
After their seventh consecutive victory over the Jaguars, the Texans will take a plus-three turnover differential to Cleveland after being minus-9 in 2020.
“On defense, we’ve always preached about getting turnovers,” David Culley said after getting his first victory as a head coach. “On offense, we all know the big thing is taking care of the ball. That’s our formula. As long as we’re attacking that formula, things are going to be all right. We were able to do that today.”
Against the Jaguars, Smith’s defense that’s switched from a 3-4 to a 4-3, picked up where it left off in preseason when the Texans finished fourth against the run and first in takeaways.
In their first game against Lawrence, they wanted to contain the run and pressure him, forcing him out of the pocket and having to throw before he wanted.
The plan was to make him as uncomfortable as possible.
Lawrence threw three touchdown passes, including one with 5 seconds left in the game, but he was picked off by safety Justin Reid, cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and middle linebacker Christian Kirksey.
“When you have a young quar“There’s
terback in his first game in the NFL, you want to make it as hard as possible for him,” Kirksey said. “He did some things good and some things he has to work on. The kid came out and did the best he could against a veteran defense. It’s our job to create turnovers like we did today.”
Lawrence completed 28 of 51 passes for 332 yards and finished with a 70.1 rating. He threw for 199 yards in the second half when the Jaguars were trying to rebound from a 34-7 deficit.
“Our defense played fast and relentless,” Kirksey said.
“Coach Smith is a believer in making it as easy as possible for the players on the field and allow us to play fast and physical and play the ball.
“He’s been doing this a long time. He knows the ins and outs, and he put us in the right position to make plays and succeed.”
Even though the defense had one sack registered by end Whitney Mercilus, they got persistent pressure on Lawrence. Because the Jaguars were trying to come from behind, they were able to run only 16 times.
a clock that goes off in a quarterback’s head,” Kirksey said. “Our line has to make sure we can get to the quarterback before he can throw the ball and make things cloudy for him. What they (linemen) did in practice translated to the game, and I was happy to see our guys get after it.”
In his first game with the Texans after signing as a free agent in March, Kirksey was terrific. Not only did he make an interception when he had to scoop the ball off the ground, but he had two tackles for losses.
The defense played a pivotal role in helping the Texans score 37 points, the most in team history in an opening game. They got to stay fresh because the offense controlled the clock with its ballcontrol running game (160 yards) and big-play passing by quarterback Tyrod Taylor (291 yards).
“Basically, the only numbers that matter to us is not turning the ball over, and the other number is us getting turnovers and being able to get them ( Jaguars) off the field on third down,” Culley said.
The defense was outstanding on third down, limiting the Jaguars to 3 of 11 (27.3 percent). The Texans allowed the Jaguars to reach their red zone one time.
“Seeing guys flying around and everybody making plays was definitely something good to see,” Kirksey said. “It’s the first step for us. We don’t want to get too high or too low. It’s a good start for us, and we’ve got to build on it.”
The next building block can be found in Cleveland, where the Texans will try to start 2-0 and make the heavily favored Browns 0-2.
“The way you become a great defense is to celebrate your win, learn from your mistakes, pay attention to the things that hurt us and make sure we clean that up,” Kirksey said. “No matter what opponent we’re going against, we always want to be at our best. This is Week 1, and we’re not where we want to be. We have a lot of stuff to learn from and to improve on.”