Sacks: Colts barely allow ’em, Texans can’t stop ’em ... Hopkins pledges his playoff game cheque to family of deceased young girl ... Zimmer will be back to coach Vikings
Sacks might have a lot to do with who wins the Colts-Texans AFC wild-card playoff game Saturday in Houston.
See, there’s this wee little discrepancy.
Indianapolis allowed the fewest sacks of any NFL team in the regular season;
Andrew Luck got tackled behind the line of scrimmage only 18 times. Barely once per game.
In contrast, Houston allowed the most in the NFL ;
Deshaun Watson was sacked 62 times. Nearly four per game.
These are not typos — the discrepancy is that enormous. Houston’s porousness is nowhere near the NFL single-season record; the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles gave up 104 sacks. Poor Randall Cunningham.
How well the Texans offensive line can protect Watson might go a long way to determining which team, Indy or Houston, advances to play next weekend in the AFC divisional playoffs. These
AFC South rivals kick off wild-card weekend at Houston’s NRG Stadium on Saturday (4:35 p.m. EST, CTV via ESPN/ABC).
If Indy wins, it takes on the Chiefs on Saturday, Jan. 12 at Kansas City. If Houston wins, it faces the Patriots on Sunday, Jan. 13 at New England.
If the Colts pass rush were more formidable, perhaps you’d have heard a lot more about this sacks-allowed contrast all week. But the Colts rank about middle of the NFL pack in sacks, tied for 19th with 38.
Still, Texans head coach
Bill O’Brien continues to be concerned about the pounding his second-year passer, Watson, is taking. It doesn’t matter what the score is, the 23-year-old gets walloped a lot — 27 times when the Texans are winning, 26 times when losing, nine times when tied.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” O’Brien said this week. “We’re working on that. We’re working very hard on that. We don’t want him to take unnecessary hits … whether it’s a protection mistake, a protection technique or him maybe (needing to get) rid of the ball a little bit quicker.”
Although he got hit so badly in an early season defeat of Dallas, the team medical personnel were checking his heart rate on the sideline. Watson this week vowed that, physically, “I feel great. I feel really good.”
That’d be much more believable coming from Luck. He got beat up a lot in his early years in the NFL too, when he took longer to make decisions in the pocket, and when he worked behind poor offensive lines. Luck was sacked 100 times over his first three seasons, 15 times in seven games in Year 4, and 41 times in 15 starts in 2017 — annually between 4.2% and 7.0% of his dropbacks.
This year, behind a vastly upgraded offensive line featuring, Luck has been sacked on only 2.7% of his dropbacks. Those linemen deserve at least to have their names mentioned. Left to right: Eighth-year tackle
Anthony Castonzo, rookie
guard Quenton Nelson, third-year centre Ryan Kelly, fourth-year guard Mark
Glowinski and rookie tackle Braden Smith.
“They’re good,” O’Brien said. “Very athletic, very strong, very good offensive line that plays well together. So it’s a big challenge for us.”
Luck factors himself into his sack avoidance, according to Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel.
“He’s a strong player. He’s hard to sack,” Crennel said.
Luckily for the Texans, they arguably have more good pass rushers stuffed on their defensive line than any team in the NFL, including J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus and Christian Covington of Vancouver.
FINAL INJURY REPORT
Only two players on Houston’s 53-man active roster aren’t considered a full go for Saturday’s game against Indy. WR Keke Coutee (hamstring) and RB Buddy Howell (hamstring) are both questionable. Indianapolis has two players listed as out, WR Ryan Grant
(toe) and DT/DE Tyquan
Lewis (knee). S Clayton
Geathers (knee), WR T.Y.
Hilton (ankle), DE Jabaal Sheard (knee), WR Dontrelle Inman (shoulder/finger) and WR Zach Pascal (knee) are all questionable. At least Pascal practised fully and Inman practised with limitation on Thursday.
BIG-HEARTED HOP’
Texans star WR DeAndre
Hopkins announced on social media he is donating his playoff cheque to the family of Jazmine Barnes, the seven-year-old girl who died early Sunday after a gunman for no discernible reason fired his gun into the car driven by the girl’s mother in Harris County.
The mother is recovering from a gunshot wound while some of Barnes’ three sisters were injured by shattered car-window glass.
“I hate to hear what happened,” Hopkins said. “The city of Houston is always supportive of me, of this team. So I felt in my heart that it’s only right I give back to those who are down.
“What can I do? That’s nothing. That won’t bring back a person, so I’m not trying to make it all about me or anything like that.”
The gunman remained at large Thursday afternoon. Reports describe the suspect as a white, bearded man in his 40s who was driving a red, extended-cab pickup. A $100,000 reward has been offered by social-justice activists for information that leads to the suspect’s arrest.
“I have a five-year-old daughter,” Hopkins said, “so it could’ve been anybody in that position — on this team … in this city. It’s just unfortunate.”
Playoff shares this season range from $27,000 US for wild-card losers to $118,000 US for Super Bowl champions.
COLD-HEARTED ZIM’
Surly Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer isn’t exactly draining his gratitude tank for being retained, after the Vikings — seen before the season as a strong Super Bowl contender with the supposed upgrade at QB with Kirk Cousins — finished 8-7-1, out of the playoffs.
Asked at his season-closing news conference Thursday what it means to him that players and ownership have come out publicly supporting him, Zimmer answered:
“Honestly, it doesn’t mean that much. I never had any doubt that anybody was not supporting me, or anything like that.”
Alrighty then.
Zimmer said that Kevin
Stefanski, whom Zimmer promoted to interim offensive coordinator down the stretch after firing John
DeFilippo, will get an interview for the position before Tuesday, when his contract expires.
EXTRA POINTS
According to the Charlotte
Observer, new Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper held “positive and constructive” multiple-day meetings this week with GM Marty Hurney and head coach Ron Rivera … The NFL has chosen Caesars (as in Palace, not vodka-based cocktails) to be the league’s gambling sponsor … Law authorities in South Florida have dropped domestic-violence charges against Rueben Foster, the oft-troubled linebacker dumped by San Francisco and immediately signed by Washington about a month ago. The NFL continues to conduct its own investigation … After firing offensive line coach Juan Castillo and receivers coach Terry
Robiskie, the Buffalo Bills have let go special-teams coordinator Danny Crossman, according to Matthew
Fairbairn of TheAthletic. com.