Former coaches, teammates recall Clowney’s skill in rattling offenses
Even though Bill O’brien is no longer their coach and general manager, the Texans know they’re going to get the best Tennessee outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney has to offer against his former team on Sunday.
When the Texans couldn’t agreeonanewcontract with Clowney, O’brien traded him to Seattle, where he played one season before signing a one-year contract with the Titans the first week of September.
Clowney hasn’t publicly admitted any animosity toward O’brien for shipping him out of town after five seasons. If he felt any ill will toward O’brien for what he perceives as unfair treatment, it became a moot point when O’brien was fired.
Still, with so many of his former teammates and coaches on the visiting sideline at Nissan Stadium, Clowney is hoping to have his breakout game with the Titans and record his first sacks of the season.
Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver knows Clowney well. Weaver also doesn’t have to worry about Clowney on Sunday.
“I have a lot of love and respect for Jadeveon,” Weaver said Thursday in a Zoom conference call. “He played his heart out for me for three years. I expect him to be motivated. We’re the team that drafted him. He spent five years here. I know he’d love to put on a show.”
Clowney has played at least 80percent of the snaps in every game for the undefeated Titans, who are 4-0 andontopof theafcsouth. He has no sacks, six solo tackles, two tackles for loss and five hits on the quarterback.
The challenge of figuring
out a way to contain Clowney against the run and pass falls on offensive coordinator Tim Kelly.
“He’s disruptive in every sense of the word,” Kelly said. “Being able to see it first hand you kind of get a feel for things you don’t want to do (against) him.”
Kelly arrived witho’brien in 2014 when Clowney was the first overall pick in the draft.
As he worked his way up the coaching ladder under O’brien, Kelly watched Clowney in practice almost every day.
“He’s got game-wrecking tendencies, the ability to take a game over, so we’ve got to do a good job of knowing where he is on every snap,” Kelly said. “They do a great job of moving him around so he’s not always in the same spot, so we have to make sure we’re on high alert on every down so we can do our best to take care of him.”
When Clowney is playing his usual position on the right side, whether he’s
standing or has his right hand on the ground, he’ll be going against left tackle Laremy Tunsil. One reason O’brien paid so dearly to acquire Tunsil was for challenges like facing Clowney.
Tunsil is off to an outstanding start, but he doesn’t want to be the victim of Clowney’s breakout performance.
“Whenyouhave two very talented athletes going against each other, it should be a goodmatchup,” interim coach Romeo Crennel said. “Two good players going, sometimes one is going to win, sometimes the other is going to win. Hopefully, we win more of those one-onones.”
As the defensive coordinator for four of Clowney’s five years with the Texans and the assistant head coach for the other, Crennel knowshimaswell as anyone on the team after spending so much time with him.
“He chases the ball, and we’re going to have to do a good job of blocking him, might have to double-team him sometimes,” Crennel said. “Maybe try to trick him if we can. But I expect a great game from him, and he’s going to try to play his best.”
Clowney is exceptional against the run. He’ll play a huge role in the Titans’ plan to shut down the running game. He’ll also try to make quarterback Deshaun Watson’s life miserable.
Watson, who threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday’s 30-14 victory over Jacksonville, must beware of Clowney every time the Texans break the huddle.
“He can definitely disrupt the game,” Watson said. “I saw that with my own eyes for two years. You’ve got to control him. He’s a problem for sure. We’ve got to make sure we know where he is at all times. You’ve got to get the ball out quick.”
In his two best seasons as a pass rusher, Clowney had 9½ and nine sacks. As good as he was chasing quarterbacks, he was even better pulverizing running backs.
“He can do just about anything in the run game,” defensive end J.J. Watt said. “He can cut inside. He can cut outside. He can knock a guy back. He can make a massively explosive play in the backfield. He can chase guys down.”
Watt should know because he played on the same front seven as Clowney for five seasons.
“He’s powerful,” Watt said. “He’s quick. He’s fast. You’ve got to account for him at all times. He’ll take some chances and make some big plays off of it, and also give you some opportunities at the same time.
“You’ve got to be aware of where he is at all times because at any point, he can make a play.”