Houston Texans may have found identity vs. San Francisco 49ers | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

Houston Texans may have found identity vs. San Francisco 49ers | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

All right, the week eight film review. And right off the top, Chris, this was the game that maybe surprised me the most this week. I I when the Texans were favored in this game, I was like, “This just doesn’t make sense to me. The Niners have it rolling. The Texans just don’t look like themselves.” Uh, and man, it just feels like they found it against this Niners defense. But what did they find? Well, I think you know, one, there’s always great comfort in playing a scheme that’s your scheme, right? Who’s going to know how to attack that better? They saw it every day in training camp. So, this is Robert Salah and company. They taught Deique O’Brien. So, CJ Shroud and them are like, “Oh, man. With the 49ers coming to town, we know some of their rules. It’s the same as our defense. We know how to attack it. We’ve had a game plan for our defense every day during training camp, right? Oh, and they run the same scheme and actually they’re not as talented as our defense, so this could be a little bit easier, right? I think there is that aspect that certainly goes into it. I also think when you know and and off of that too, like when I was in Tampa, what were we famous for? Tampa 2 course. Okay. I mean, it was prime Tampa 2. When teams would play us in Tampa 2, we were like, great. We see this all the time. one of the few teams that has a lot of ways to play against Tampa 2. We’d like you to do that more, please. Right. And I feel like teams figured that out. They were like, man, we can’t play Tampa and Tampa 2 too much. They know how to attack it because we had to deal with it in training camp every day. So, we knew that. So, there is that aspect. I think the other aspect too that’s interesting to me and I maybe should have emphasized this more and I I never got to be a part of a particular situation quite like this but defensive head coach who came from the team you’re about to play. I would just have a hard time not thinking Demo Ryan’s went over to the offensive staff a little bit and the offensive staff goes, “Hey, what do you think they’re doing here?” Like, this team went in, they lined up in this formation, they motioned and shift over to this formation. Why do you think they’re doing that or whatever? and Demo Ryson go, “Oo, well, when they call quarters and they’re in this formation and then you shift to this, they’re going to like to check to this coverage or defense because they don’t like quarters anymore now that you’ve shifted to this formation.” And I think those are maybe some of the things that there was a handful of plays in this game. We’re going to show a few. Some are just creative good plays by the Texans offense that I feel like they were a little bit like, “Hey, hey, we got a feel for how they’ll defend us here and we’ll know how to coach it.” exactly how to expose it. And not every play was sexy. Sometimes it was just to get a five or six yard game, but but nonetheless, I feel like there was certainly an element of that in this football game that helped the Houston Texans out where CJ Strad maybe had some more answers than he usually does. Definitely a backup plan. And maybe I think one other thing, and this is going to sound repetitive almost to what we’ve said to Kansas City in weeks past, I think they might have stumbled onto something in this game because of this. Become a short passing team. become a short passing team. Let this guy behind me right here who is a pinpoint thrower just be surgical. Start there because you’re elite at nothing right now. Yeah. And what it did show me in this football game is they can be elite in the quick short passing game. He sees the field well. He’s got a quick release. He’s an on the money thrower. I also feel like this was the first game they trusted the younger receivers a little bit and open the offense up for them. I I do. I I I felt like a little bit like, oh, I don’t know if they trust Jaylen Null and Hutchinson and some of these guys with some of their Right. I felt like this game was the first time they were like, “Hey, we’re stuck with them. They’re playing. We got no Nico. Christian Kirk’s out.” It’s like they got to either sink or swim now. We got to run some of our offense here. We can’t go, “Oh, I don’t trust him to read the coverage the right way or whatever.” So, I feel like some of that happened as well. But I do think the short passing game is something that the Texans can jump off of here and maybe make their offense a little bit better as we go forward. Well, I really like the call back in your notebook. I want to show that here. You said, “I remember Josh McDaniels.” Well, uh, this will always stick with me before the Seahawks Super Bowl. Him telling me, “You have to be the Patriots with completions of five yards.” You have to be patient patience. Yeah, it looks like Patriots because I was thinking where he’s from. I’m like, and that’s what Brady did for so long. Yeah, him him telling me you have to be patience with completions of 5 to eight yards when you play the Seattle scheme, right? They don’t give you a lot of plays down the football field. That’s not what they do, right? And I I can remember him saying like, “Hey, you know, the perfect stat line a lot of the times when you play a Seattle type defense might be 22 of 27, 230 yards, right? Two touchdowns, no interceptions, right? Something like that. It’s not always going to be sexy. You got to kind of go into the game trying to or have at least that be your main goal and not get frustrated with we can’t get chunk plays. We can’t get chunk plays cuz their defense is almost predicated on not letting you get chunk plays. That’s really what it’s all about. And that to me, and again, offensive coordinator here in Houston has a New England background to where I feel like they kind of took that approach of going, “Hey, we’re going to stretch some of these creative little three on two zones they have or four on three zones they have, and we’re going to find ways to run our routes the right way and just spread it out a little bit and sit in a guy in the middle or have somebody there after we spread out that zone and we get five yards here and six yards here and five yards here.” And that’s what they did. And then they found a few opportunities where the 49ers got frustrated and blitzed and man-to-man and just stuff like that. And they go, “Okay, now’s our time to maybe take a shot down the field and be a hair more aggressive.” And I feel like that was their approach and I feel like it was really brilliant that way. And I think Stout’s passing chart backs that up, especially what we’re used to seeing with CJ Strad. But in this one, you have a guy that was willing to get the ball out, let guys create after the catch, make plays. And I mean Chris, they have playmakers on this team as you see the passing chart right here that can do that in a Woody Marks or we know how explosive of an athlete Jaylen Null is Braxen Bario on some short. Let’s get through a couple plays and I know but look at this. I mean if that doesn’t speak to patience and like let’s just get keep our offense in good situations, right? They’re not going to give us the big plays. So if they’re not, then fine. And you want to give us four or five yard completions. Our quarterback can hit those all day long and and be right on the money. And you see that here. I mean, it’s actually incredible to look at how they threw the ball in the football game. It’s it’s more green dots in the short area than maybe I even thought in my mind. Well, let’s start with the Woody Marks 50ard reception here. This in the first quarter. 3 minutes left. It’s a second and five. Houston’s on their own 18 yd line on this one. And we have the dots behind us for your viewing pleasure. Yeah, this is pretty awesome. So, walk us through the concept here, Chris, that got Woody so much space. Well, this is one here where I mean they I feel like they knew they were going to get manto man. Okay. And there So, they’re in manto man. And I would say honestly, this is one where if you’ll see here, oops, I forgot I was connected to my my uh pack here. But if you see here, right, and I’m going to let this rrack one more time because I’m going to stand up and talk to it. But like if Straoud had more time to throw this ball and when it rerracks, I’ll show you. Okay, you’ll see when he’s here, he’s got one of these crossers. I mean, he’s got it. He really does. He’s got he’s got 19 and he wants to throw to him. He wants to throw to either one. He’s looking down the field, but you can see he’s got duress here. They blitzed. He had a he did a great job here where Bthun, I believe, had Okay, Woody Marx, manto man. All right. He had him, but when he play action and at first he kind of blocked and then he shot his gun, I think he went, “Wait, he’s blocking. I’m going to go get the quarterback.” Cuz that’s what he was taught to do. And CJ experienced linebacker, a younger linebacker where you got to go, “Wait, I got to see this out. See this through a little bit.” All right. And he does that. And as you see, here’s Woody Marks in the flat. Boom. CJ Strad gets it to him. And now there’s nobody there to hat. Now, what also what I’ll say with this and and talking to it, see the 49ers, I felt like they blitzed and played more man-to-man because they were like, “Wait, we’re sick of being beat for five and six yard type of throws.” And after the first drive where they got surgically destroyed a little bit, I think they went a little bit like, “Hey, we we got to mix in some other stuff here. We can’t let him just pick us apart.” And that was a a what a a benefactor or a benefit of them throwing the ball short early in the football game to get them into some defenses just like you see here. Yeah. And and Woody Marks is the guy. You hear me right? My microphone’s going. Oh yeah. Loud and clear. Loud and clear. Sure. If I unplug and that’s Woody’s skill set coming out of college is get into the flat, catch the ball, and make things happen. Like that’s the one thing you can allow with him. No question. So they were leaning into that. They’re not a good traditional run team. Not right now. That’s why we’re talking about the short passing game and this stuff is going to be for them. Yes, do that. That’s an that’s an extension of the run. How about another play this time to a wide receiver and Braxton Barios. Chris, what caught my eye before you even jump into it is just the formation and how do they utilize it? The formation. And look, they’re just looking for an easy completion here. Okay, that’s all they’re trying to do. You get a fourman rush. All right. And within it, too. And like guys, when he gets to his spot here in the stack, stop it right now. Yeah, right there if you want. Okay, that’s good. That works. That’ll work. So, here they’re in a situation here. All right. Where we got four down. It’s It’s a man-to-man situation. What they really wanted to do, and if you could rewind it just a little more, one more time. Right, guys? If you can do that. Yep. A little bit more. Like right there. That’s perfect. Just when he gets when 17 gets behind 81, try to stop it right there. All right. So when he goes into motion here, okay, keep it going. Keep my motion. Play it. Stop it right here. Stop here. Okay. What they really want to do, stop it when they get to the stack again. I know. All right. 20 Upton Stout. Okay. He knows at this moment, oh no, I got to play inside and switch here. It’s a kind of rub. It’s like a rub. So he’s worried about 17’s going to go inside off of this guy. And he wants to try to get inside and play inside leverage. But they know how they play things and know their rules a little bit. And they teach 81 to take an inside release even though 17’s going inside too to just not let Upton Stout be able to cross his face and be there for a nice fouryard completion. So go ahead, let it play now, guys. And sorry about, you know, but you see it there. Boom. So he got stuck in the rub with 81. And you find a little way again of I know their rules a little bit. that I know what they’re going to do in certain formations and when we motion. And the big thing is not only to know the rules, but then you got to teach a little nuance in the routes to how to attack the leverage, right? And that’s what I found out. There was a number of little short passes throughout the game like this. I just wanted to give an example because I know it’s not sexy, but this is what the game was. It was a lot of five and six yard throws just like this where they kind of knew how they were going to be played and they go, “We can get a completion here.” But I think this is such a vital example because what are you seeing? It’s second and eight. So, what are the Texans really bad at? They can’t protect on third and long. Exactly. So, you need to keep yourself at a third and long. So, you go into a second and eight and go, let’s get four and we can convert on third and fourth. Exactly. We do not have the personnel to convert on third. 100% way to button it up, Connor. That is into what you are bad at and what you It’s going to make you better. 100%. You’re exactly right. Like a four- yard completion. Well, yeah. The whole game was this. That’s what I’m trying to say. The whole game was five and six and five and six and then oh wait it’s five and six we took a shot down the field. Oh oh oh Woody Marks wasn’t covered because you blitzed and you were trying to play manto man. That was a big play and there was only a few big pass plays in the football game and I believe we have another one get to one because this guy I think needs to play more and that’s Jaylen Null realiz right like kind of awaken him a little bit. Jaylen Null who was one of the most explosive athletes in the draft. This was a 44 yd catch of the second quarter, Chris. And this is another second and eight. Second and eight. Okay, we’re going to They’re They’re playing the 49ers are playing quarters coverage. And when it gets back into the top of the rack here, just uh pause it when it’s when it gets back into the Stop it right here if you don’t mind. Perfect, guys. All right. So, here now we got we got a little bit of Yeah. the we got uh run formation, right? We got Jaylen Null here, 81 to the left. Quarters coverage as you see here. All right. Anybody listening now? 0 and 27 in the back end, right? Corner and safety. Okay. Because of this tight split and they’re playing quarters, it almost makes like they’re going to double 81. All right. They’re going to double 81. And the whole play is for this right here where they want to they want to eat up these two guys, uh, Jer Brown and and my guy from uh, Florida State, Green, right? They want to eat them up and keep them kind of right here. So they could throw over the top to Jaylen null. That’s all it’s about. So within this, it’s quarters as we know. And you see this these two because of the split, it’s a little tighter by 81. He eats up two and one of these guys has to get back. It’s really green that’s got to get back, but because of the split and because he makes an outside breaking route, he knows, wait, he could run a post corner or some sort of out and I have to be there for it. So now let it play, guys, if you don’t mind. you’re going to see a play play action pass. See, and he kind of pauses for a second cuz he’s afraid he’s going to go to the corner and now we have somebody over the top of you. And to me, again, that was another one where I looked at it and go, they know how they’ll play it in this situation, right? He probably had a check. Like if they didn’t play quarters, they were probably going to get to some other type of play, but if they got quarters, this is what they wanted and this is what they drew up. And I think that again was another example of them kind of have a good feel for for the defensive scheme. And that somebody has four three wheels and Jaylen null and that’s his teammate from college on the other side. So they know the timing of each other. I I interviewed both of them at the combine and asked them how important that was and they they just know what each other what they’re going to do all the time. So when the Texans took both of them, I was like, “Oh, that’s going to be really interesting to watch.” Now you’re starting to reap the benefits of that. They’re going to be able to complement each other quite well cuz null is your jitter bug. three rockets up your ass type of guy. Hutchinson can run and stretch you deep and do all that, but he’s the bigger one-on-one jump ball physicality guy, you know, also a good route runner, but not the jitterbug type of route runner. Uh, yeah, I think the future is bright for these two guys. And I hope they ride them a little bit more. To me, Jaylen Null is one of the few guys on their offense that can make big-time explosive plays, and that’s where I just go, they need to ride him a little bit more here. And they got Jaden Higgins involved by the uh the 12 yard touchdown catch, Chris, which was in the third quarter. So, they’re trying to get these rookie wide receivers going. I think so. And that’s why I said it before. I think it’s the first time where I felt like they were like, “All right, they’re we got to we got to see if they can hang in the trust tree here. We got to go here.” Well, they gave him the shot on this one. Another is a a really cool play here. Now, I bet you on this one, I don’t think this is going to be Tampa 2 until the motion. All right. I’m gonna guess it was going to be some other s sort of two deep formation as you’re watching. We got a bunch to the right. You got Hutchinson. Uh who the hell is 17? I always forget his name. Barios. Right. So Barios is there. We got a bunch to the right. And pause it right here, guys, just for now. You got uh Hutchinson, Null, and Barios to your right. Right. And then we got Schultz at tight end to the left all by himself. I think right now this defense is probably going to be quarter quarter half to the front side, right? These two, Jr. Brown and Lemanure are both playing quarters on this side. But I think when they have the motion, this is to me again, I don’t know this, but Demo Ryan going, I think if you motion this guy over here and get to a 2x two set, it’ll go to Tampa, too. And I say that too because when I watched it on film, when the motion started to happen, he started to look at him and they were communicating like, “Hey, this this we’re changing. We’re changing.” Right? So, as we see this, you’ll see here, like you talked about, okay, it’s going to go to Tampa 2. Our man Bthoon is the Tampa 2 linebacker. They’ve taught him, hey, we want you to open to the speed, right? These are two receivers over here. So, he’s going to open that way and worry about the deep middle and protect it that way. Okay? But now we’re going to have our man Higgins come in motion. Okay, guys. Go ahead and let it play. All right. And if you don’t mind, pause it right before that. Pause it now if you don’t mind. Okay, perfect. Guys, we see this 48 I said is looking over here. Now, when they come off with this type of motion, Schultz runs to the corner as they often do. More times than not, if you break down the Texans and they run something like this, this receiver sits right here in some sort of option route in between the zone, right? He kind of reads the coverage. This guy’s playing zone. This guy starts to widen out right green because he’s worried. I got to protect the corner route a little bit. So, there’s usually a hole there. I think this was a game plan play where that again Demo Ryan goes, I think they’re going to play Tampa, too. He won’t be looking down the middle, bthoon, the middle linebacker. And these two guys are going to sit here thinking, wait, is he going to go inside to me? Is he going to go outside to me? Is he going to sit it up? And instead they just let Hutcherson run right through the middle of the post. You guys can let it play. And you could see it’s a wide open touchdown down the middle of the field right there. Right. You see 48 bthoon. He now is like, “Oh, wait. I got to flip my hips and go back the other side. They’re trying to attack the backside of me. He’s not wrong in what he’s being taught. This is a game plan play that they I feel like they knew what they were going to get if they got into this formation with the motion. And of course, they got what they wanted and bam, it was a touchdown. And the throw is is perfect on this. It was perfect. He he missed two throws in the game. He might have missed an out route and maybe one crossing route at one point. Even his interception at the end of the half, man. It wasn’t a He was tight coverage. It wasn’t a bad throw. And then Lemon made a did a horrible job. He should have gone down so they could have kicked a field goal to go into the half. I believe that would have made it what 16 to 10. Yeah, it would have definitely ran around and did whatever. The whole sideline’s going go down, go down. I can see Shanahan with his play sheet like going crazy on the sideline. He doesn’t go down. Clock runs out and Texans go into the half up 16 to7. So, no sacks allowed by the Texans in this game. Per NextGen stats, Houston allowed a season low 21.4% pressure rate. The 49ers blitz on a season high 33.3% of the drop backs. I thought so. They got seven pressures on 14 of on the 14 drop backs. Just two pressures on 28 drop backs with no blitz. So they they had no pressure in this game without blitzing. But the problem is Chris when Strad was under pressure which was against the blitz basically he was 7 and N for 111 yards a touchdown. Didn’t take any sacks. You think they they out they schemed this for the offensive line rather than the offensive line just having this way better performance? I think they yeah schemed it a little bit. They know what blitzes to expect. That always helps. So scout team all week was a little bit like, “Hey, this is what’s going to happen.” And so you’re coached up that way. I also think the short passing game, some of those blitzes, it was like, “Yeah, you blitz, but we’re throwing it short, so so what? I’m I’m under a little pressure, but I’m about to get the ball out of my hand anyways.” So I think there’s that aspect there. I like the approach from Houston. I think it’s something they should do as they go forward, right? I really do. Yo yo yo, thanks for watching, homies. We are now in the NFL season here on Chris Sims Unbutton. Hit subscribe to get our weekly picks, game recaps, film deep dives, and much, much more. Thanks again for watching. Subscribe, rate, review. Peace out. You know where to find us.

Chris Simms and Connor Rogers discuss the Texans’ win against the San Francisco 49ers and what Houston may have discovered offensively during their victory. #NBCSports #NFL #ChrisSimmsUnbuttoned #HoustonTexans #sanfrancisco49ers
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Houston Texans may have found identity vs. San Francisco 49ers | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC
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