THE DEFENSE
New coordinator Smith has delivered a message to his defense: Get the ball
Coordinator Lovie Smith wants his unit to seize the day — and the football.
Lovie, after you got the first couple turnovers Saturday night …
“After the first couple what?” the new Texans defensive coordinator asked the reporter with a playful grin.
After the first couple turnovers … “You say after we took the ball away two times,” Lovie Smith corrected, his silver-bearded grin growing wider. “Takeaways?” Takeaways …
“All right,” Smith said, satisfied. “Keep going.”
There’s a common marketing strategy that says how a problem is perceived can be changed just by renaming the issue, a rebranding that removes the connotations associated with the old name and starts fresh with a new one.
No matter what someone calls a defense seizing possession from its opponent — a turnover, a takeaway, a hey-look-what-I-found! — the Texans defense was historically bad at it last season.
By now, Houston fans probably have the numbers memorized like a home address: nine turnovers — pardon … nine takeaways — in 2020, second fewest by an NFL team since 1980.
An atrocious Texans defense that also ranked last in the league in rush defense was the team’s crippling problem in its 4-12 setback season after back-to-back AFC South titles. The ineffective unit is partly behind the offseason coaching staff overhaul, an opportunity for the 63-year-old Smith to return to the NFL after Illinois fired him after a five-year college head coaching stint in which the Illini went 17-39.
The Texans hired Smith and firsttime NFL head coach David Culley on the same night in January, and there were few people to pair with Culley with as many credentials as Smith, a former NFL Coach of the Year who rose to prominence helping Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy develop the Tampa 2 defense while a linebackers coach in the late 1990s.
Smith was twice a head coach (Bears and Buccaneers), and as Culley’s associate head coach and defensive coordinator, he adds tenured wisdom to a staff that also retained longtime defensive coordinator and two-time head coach Romeo Crennel in an advisory role.
“Guy’s been coaching football for longer than I have been alive,” said first-year special teams coordinator Frank Ross, hired in February from the Colts. “So I’m going to listen to that guy. You can’t put a price on experience, so if you don’t have your rabbit ears up and listening when a guy like Lovie Smith is talking, you are missing an opportunity to grow.”
Some players have no choice but to listen. Several Texans defenders have said Smith constantly jabs them with reminders of the turnovers they must force this season.
“He’s just constantly in my ear,” said starting free safety Justin Reid, a fourth-year veteran.
Reid said Smith once ribbed him during training camp: Hey, 20, have
you been to practice the last couple days?
Reid, who hadn’t missed a day, understood immediately.
“So,” Reid said, “I had to go and get three (big plays) for him to make that up (to me).”
The reminders were warranted, and in three preseason games, the Texans defense eclipsed its 2020 takeaway total with five interceptions and five fumble recoveries. Several defenders have raved in training camp about the team’s transition from a 3-4 to Smith’s fourman front. It’s an attacking style in which players rely less on schematics and more on instinct.
A deep rotation of defensive linemen shifts along the line of scrimmage, creating advantageous oneon-one matchups that could lead to sacks and tackles for loss. Linebackers
react based on what they see. Corners play mostly zone coverage and read opposing quarterbacks to break and react. Safeties sometimes fill gaps on runs, but they are most often given plenty of free range and are entrusted to hawk the ball.
“I love this system,” Reid said. “It’s aggressive and lets us make plays and lets us make calls. So I’m having a ton of fun out there, having a blast just going out and playing football.”
Still, most of the turnovers were forced against opponent backups. The Texans didn’t face starting quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott in preseason victories over the Packers and Cowboys, and eventual Hall of Famer Tom Brady carved through the Houston defense with two easy touchdown drives in a 23-16 Texans loss at NRG Stadium.
“We’ve got a lot of fight in us,” starting linebacker Christian Kirksey said. “Obviously, we’re not where we want to be exactly. We’ve still got some stuff to clean up. We got hit on some plays we wish we could have back, but it’s preseason. It’s meant to clean up everything and see where we’re at. We’re moving forward, we’ve got some great players, and we’re getting ready for Week 1.”
Kirksey, an eighth-year NFL veteran, was one of first-year general manager Nick Caserio’s initial additions to a defense shifting away from a 3-4 philosophy.
Six mainstays remain.
Reid and Eric Murray are expected to start at safety, although converted corner Lonnie Johnson’s impressive preseason, which included a 53-yard pick-six against the Cowboys, makes him a candidate to overtake Murray.
Veteran cornerback Bradley Roby, a two-year Texans starter, returns, although he must miss the season opener while serving the final game of a six-game suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Linebacker Zach Cunningham, Houston’s second-round pick in 2017, returns for his fifth season, and former 3-4 linebacker Whitney Mercilus is expected to start at defensive end opposite Charles Omenihu.
Kirksey (Packers), defensive tackle Maliek Collins (Cowboys), and slot corner Desmond King (Titans) all signed one-year contracts, and, including cornerback Terrance Mitchell (Browns), who signed a two-year deal, all are expected to start when the regular season begins Sept. 12 against the Jaguars at NRG Stadium.
Collins has perhaps been Houston’s largest individual success story of training camp. His impact has been immediate on a defensive line that has thrived with him in the middle. Omenihu led the Texans with three preseason sacks and has repeatedly credited Collins as an effective partner in the pass rush.
Caserio attempted to bolster the pass rush by trading inside linebacker Bernardrick McKinney, a system casualty who’s comfortable in the 3-4, to the Dolphins for defensive end Shaq Lawson while also swapping a 2021 seventh-round pick for a sixth.
Lawson, a former Bills 2016 firstround pick, produced just one tackle for loss and did not record a sack in the preseason, and he was subsequently traded to the Jets for a 2022 sixth-round pick.
Jacob Martin, a fourth-year veteran, recorded two preseason sacks and has consistently platooned with Collins, Mercilus and Omenihu in pass-rush situations.
“I like where we are,” Smith said. “It’s probably universal that we’re the underdog in the NFL, right? So we kind of like that position, too. Eventually, the score is going to really count, and we’ll be ready.”