Film Study: IS HE BACK? C.J. Stroud played GOOD for the Houston Texans Vs the San Francisco 49ers

Film Study: IS HE BACK? C.J. Stroud played GOOD for the Houston Texans Vs the San Francisco 49ers

All right, let’s talk CJ Strad here. What a performance from CJ Strad. A season that early on people are wondering, is this a lost year? This offense not getting anything going, but we’ve seen it look significantly better as of late. Even that Seahawks game, Seahawks have a good defense. That wasn’t ideal, but you know, good performance against the Titans, great performance against a bad Ravens defense. Um, there was then that Tech uh that Seahawks game and then this week being able to once again have a good performance. Let’s talk about what they did right in this one. First, just something like this, which is simple, but like they have not succeeded at this too much this season, which is having a player going running a one-on-one matchup and just being able to win in this situation. Something they’ve very much struggled with this year. It’s Jaylen Null, who they haven’t used a lot. only 16 uh2 uh total yards on the season uh even after this impressive game where he had a decent chunk of them in this game, but running a one-on-one matchup and I think he’s going to kind of earn more uh you know more looks like this cuz third and four obvious passing situation. Straoud is going to take the snap. There’s a blitz but it’s picked up nicely. Hey, that’s worth noting and we’ll talk about it a little bit more later, but uh that’s been a big thing. That was a real struggle for the Texans first couple games. They couldn’t pick up blitzes. They pick up that blitz, you now have null winning this one-on-one matchup. Straoud hits him and they’re able to get that conversion. And again, we can say it’s the 49ers banged up defense all we want. And it is like, you know, that that’s fair. That’s a fair thing to mention, right? But the reality is the Texans early on this season. They weren’t picking up blitzes and winning one-on-one matchups down the field against anybody. So to be able to do it here, uh that’s that’s important. And you know, uh Upton Stout is maybe not an elite corner. He’s the one that got beat there, but still you’re taking advantage of your opponent’s depth players that are in in the lineup, right? You’re it’s it’s not the most impressive play because of the defense you’re going up against, but it’s stuff they weren’t doing earlier and they’re doing now. Guess what? Throughout the season, you’re going to play some depth corners. Uh you got to take advantage and and that’s what they were able to do on this play. Also, this one, it’s going to be a second down and five situation. Uh man coverage across the board. And you know, again, we can it’s fair to say there was some beating up on the Niners defense not playing great. Watch as when Straoud takes the snap. I mean, you see right here, there is a player who uh they have just left wide open. It’s running back Woody Marks. Uh who right here, I mean, you know, uh he he they just they blew a coverage. Someone was supposed to cover him. No one is. Straoud, to his credit, realizes this. Watch him flip it to Marks and Marks is off to the races. So, I’ll pause it right here. At this point, this is already a big play. This is mostly due to the bad defense. It’s it’s good job by the Texans take advantage of bad defensive plays. That’s something I talk about a lot on this channel is good offensers take advantage of that. But still, at this point, you could totally say like, you know, him getting to the 50 yard line more on the 49ers uh defense. But guess what? He’s not going to get to the 50 yard line. Instead, watch him make a move and he gets all the way to around like the 32 yard 32 33 yardd line there. So he gains another 17 yards or so after what you would expect after he already had a big game due to the 49ers blowing a coverage. So again, sure some not great defensive plays, but they were making the most of them. And that’s what you like to see if you’re a Texans fan. This one, another one, it’s a zone coverage concept. Receiver towards the bottom of the screen is going to kind of try and clear out the kind of uh deep left-hand corner of for the offense. And then you have another receiver starting on the right side of the field for the offense who’s going to hopefully get to where now nobody is. Watch as when Straoud takes the snap. You’re going to see again uh blocked well enough that he’s able to have a clean pocket. Throws down the field. Jaylen Null um you know there is there is a window for him. It’s not a huge window, but there’s a window for Straoud to make this throw. Straoud does exactly that. They do pick up a big completion and are able to, you know, keep keep the ball moving forward. So yeah, again it’s really good stuff here. This is just this is not bad defense. This is just good execution by the Texans. And also I want to talk about the blitzing a little bit more and and handling the blitz. Something like I said they really struggled with this early on, but that is something you can improve on as the season progresses. So here, this is one of the ways you can improve on it. I already showed just picking up the blitz, right? Everyone blocking the right guy. Here’s a different way you could do it. So the uh 49ers are showing man coverage. They have two safeties who are deep though. So, there’s several things they could be doing. You see that player who is in the slot uh for the towards the left for the Texans. Watch how when this begins, see the player who was lined up against him, he now rushes the passer. So, this is what you do. You have a player who is lined up against uh you know, someone close to the line of scrimmage uh instead rush the passer. The safety will then uh drop back and he will be the guy who covers that receiver. And this is a way you can potentially get a guy to get to the quarterback untouched. Two things. One, Texans are all over this. They have the blocking set. So, really good stuff on that end. The second thing is what Stout is going to do. Watch how he takes advantage of that because now the safety is further off because of the scheme and they’re able to get a first down right there. That is good stuff all around from the Texans, a team that had really struggled with that earlier this year. This play as well is one I definitely have to bring up where you see the player who I’ve circled in black. That player is going to be rushing the passer here. Watch as he’s going to get through. He’s going to get through untouched. So, this was kind of the one, you know, there there’s maybe one or two where it’s like, ah, I could have done that better. Which again, playing a defense that blitzes a lot. You’re not going to bat a thousand there, right? But here’s another way that you can avoid something like this. Well, watch Drad sidestep that pressure. And now with his speed, watch him pick up the first down on a second down and eight. So that was just that was something that you really like to see if you are a a a Texans fan is how good of a job they did despite the 49ers consistently blissing to try to generate pressure. They did not sack CJ Strad once in this game. And to me that was the difference. Whereas in previous weeks, you know, Stra would get sacked a thousand times in situations like this. Another thing the Texans just did really well of, I thought, was just the, you know, uh, the run the ball and then run play action off of it. You know, uh, Woody Marks had 5.6 yards per carry. Now they’re going to run a play action on the play you see on your screen. Uh, then try to hit a receiver going over the middle. When Straoud takes the snap, you’re going to see that uh, you know, right here. Uh, it’s it’s open enough. Like definitely the linebackers bite on this play action a bit more than I think you would like if you’re a 49ers fan. Stra gets it there quickly. again, just well executed by the entire offense, right? Good play call at the right time to fool the 49ers. So, there was that aspect of it, but again, as a as a play caller, all you can do is put your players in position to succeed, and that’s what happened. But also, this one was a really good example as well where it’s going to not be quite as clean. You have same same concept, play action, receiver going over the middle, but when Straoud takes the snap, this is one of the few times that you did see some some pressure just by straight up win. You know, blocking was very good in this game for Houston. Something we haven’t heard a lot this season. Part of that probably just not a great Dline going up against, but nonetheless, there’s pressure here. Straoud has to deal with it. Watch CJ Strad step up in the pocket. Throws a little bit off balance, but does a good job of not letting himself get too offbalance. The receiver on this play is uh Xavier Hutchinson. So, you see, you know, uh you you see the situation. He is open, but there is number 20 for San Francisco closer towards the sideline could run in and try and make a play on this. So, there’s definitely traffic. It’s going to take a good catch, even if it was a good job by Straoud to put it in this situation. But watch Hutchinson just make a play. And you know what? Sometimes you need that, right? Sometimes you need a receiver to just make a play. And it felt like certainly last week against Seattle, you would have liked to see more of this. Well, and this week, you saw more of it. Really a strong performance from Houston. And again, the Texans defense is just so good, right, that the offense doesn’t have to be elite. The offense doesn’t have to be awesome. But picking up blitzes, running the ball decently well, being able to run, play action, and and doing these kind of things decently well, well, that’s going to make a big difference, especially, you know, kind of uh tough stretch for them coming up. You know, you got the Broncos and the Jaguars. Uh two teams that have have played, you know, have good records this season. I think the Jaguars are kind of we’re still trying to figure them out. The Broncos are a good team. Houston will get a brever against Tennessee, but then they got to play Buffalo, Indianapolis, and Kansas City. Those are the three teams currently with the best odds to make the Super Bowl out of the AFC. And you got to play them three straight, you know, in in three straight games. That’s kind of the game, the stretch you got to come out ahead on. And they still play the Colts again cuz they’re division rivals. You play the Chargers, uh, then the Cardinals and Raiders are a little bit easier. So schedule isn’t too easy. That’s kind of the issue. But a win like this can potentially help get things going. But definitely they’re going to have to, you know, especially in the AFC South, which doesn’t seem like a division you can win with how good the Colts are unless you sweep them. You’re going to have to make sure that you, you know, uh, take care of business like this. So, interesting stuff. But yeah, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from you. And of course, as always, thanks for watching.

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