Chris Long: The Texans Can Win The AFC South

Chris Long: The Texans Can Win The AFC South

This was a fun game to watch. Anytime the Texans defense is playing, it’s a fun game to watch. Um I I just I don’t think it matters who’s playing quarterback respectfully for this team right now. Um I got home from Dirty Nelly’s Saturday night. We after the game partied for a little bit. I had to. These guys I legit, this isn’t me just saying it. I did not want to go and y’all like y’all definitely peer pressured me. And I told my wife, you know when you’re like, I don’t want to go. other guys want me to go and you’re like full of [ __ ] I was not full of [ __ ] dude. I want to go to sleep. I called Nate and Nate was like, “Come on, man. You have to come out. You got to come out and get a beer.” Like, we just won the game or something ourselves. Anyway, so I got home kind of drunk and I woke up Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning and I checked my Bet MGM account and um I had a uh I had like I forget what the odds were. They were pretty like plus 700 or something. Texans to win the division. Bang. Bang. 2:08 a.m. And um woke up and I was like, that’s how you feel, Chris, from last night. And uh ended up feeling totally vindicated because the defense is [ __ ] There’s something about And I know Daniel Jones definitely broke his leg. Like they don’t make [ __ ] like that up. And some of these injuries can be weightbearing or nonweightbearing and it decides how you play. And it could get worse. Like this could end poorly. But that comes from the agent. There is no good reason from a standpoint of like competitive edge that that gets out. It’s definitely an agent thing. It It’s definitely a color co cover for Daniel Jones. Um and it invites pressure. It invites middle pressure. It invites, you know, game planning knowing that I can’t move this guy off the the spot. You can’t change his launch point. um you’re not going to move the pocket. So, I think it’s like a double-edged sword there. I I think it Daniel Jones is not the reason they lost this game. I think Daniel Jones made some big throws, especially in the second half. That ball he threw to Downs on the sideline was a was a [ __ ] dime. He also threw some stinkers, but not more than CJ Strad, who, you know, I love Shroud. That’s my guy. He he looked rusty. I mean, he threw the ball at one point he was past the line of scrimmage by three yards. You know, it was like he was doing [ __ ] like that. that he threw the pick backed up. Just a bad deal uh in the first half. But as the game went on, the thing I loved about Houston’s offense is they are capable at this point of going three plays at a time. And we’ve seen sporadically this year them possess the football for six, seven minutes at a time with an anemic run game, six, seven minutes at a time. Tanner, my uh what what generation are y’all [ __ ] Gen Z. Gen Z [ __ ] behind the my kids, man. Um they’re not even Gen Z. I don’t know what their generation is. Maybe whatever it is. They Yeah, they don’t we won’t won’t stop about this thing. And and we said this this weekend, not to get on a sidebar for Texans fans. I’m sorry, but like we had the the number 69, dude. That was a lot cooler. You guys think you’re cool. You guys are [ __ ] losers. Like 69’s a funny thing. You can’t even 67 is way better than what? Cuz 69 is a No, bro. It’s a real like gooner sexual thing when you think about it. 67. What does gooner mean, bro? I’m too old, man. It means jerking off. That’s it. We’re going to talk about the Texans now. I was just saying 67’s weak. Okay. So, but but they can move. They can have the ball for six or eight minutes at a time and um and and you saw like in the Denver game for instance where they possessed the football really well, but they couldn’t get in the red zone. So, I think going forward for them, it’s the short passing game. It’s not taking negatives, which they had a lot of, you know, plays yesterday. They got knocked down the line of scrimmage, but they didn’t have a lot of three, four yard losses. They didn’t take a bunch of sacks. And when they got in the red zone, they found on two different occasions a way to get on the perimeter and score. And I thought, um, you know, Schultz threw a great block on the end of round to Nico Collins and then somebody else, I can’t remember, it was Stove or something like that or who who the hell is that guy? They they got a bunch of similar looking tight ends. Um Stover Stover Stover uh on a crack toss. I the point I’m making is I think they can reasonably talk about winning this division. That defense is a superpower. That defense is the best defense in the league. Mhm. I like with all due respect to God’s team, Reed. No, I like I think you guys are fantastic. There is a level of violence and speed on the field. they can play man coverage and just play off like and and and and they break on the ball and like they were hammering in cuts and it’s just there was a sequence in this game where it went toe-to-toe and he ran through the middle of the pocket and just put a dent in I think it was Jonathan Taylor’s face mask it the violence and then the next play Will Anderson’s big ass is the floater standing over um who was it the center and he just you Bordellini a friend of the and runs them over. The violence with which they play and ultimately in this game Daniel Jones, you know, inability to get off the spot and the fact that in the first quarter or whatever it was, S Gardner leaves with an injury, you’ve been playing primarily man coverage since he came along, your game plan changes when he leaves the game. And I think for the Colts, Buckner being gone really, really hurts them. You talk about those negatives and [ __ ] like that. Um, you don’t have a bunch of pass rush. So, I think a lot was to be gleaned from this game. And do I think Indie is going to get a lot better? I don’t know because um they have a problem on third down. That broken leg is not healing on the fly. And I And you brought up the point about um inviting pressure, how that injury invites pressure. Yeah. The Texans were 37% blitz rate in this game. That’s a huge uptick from uh 23% across the first 12 weeks. And specifically on third down they’re 50% which again huge uptick over 30% coming in. So I think that’s a reflection of you know them knowing hey this quarterback can’t move he’s not going to move well in the pocket. And I think it’s also kind of how the book on on Daniel Jones reads a little bit right now with with the way he struggled against the blitz. And how many times last night while I’m watching the watching it back did I turn to you and say where are you going with this football? Right. And and when that happens a lot in a game, when I’m watching a game, like it starts to be a pattern. There are some situations over the past couple weeks with Daniel Jones where he reverts back to being the indecisive or poor decision maker. And um you know, I alluded to the third third downs first nine weeks 51% second in the league. Weeks 10 through 12 30%. That’s 28th in the league. Wow. You remember in in Germany they went like three quarters without [ __ ] converting on third down. And you know there’s all all types of these situations. you know, you had a drop on fourth and um you had a drop um late in the game, Josh Downs, you know, like you know, you had a week ago you had him in the red zone running that angle route off of motion and they’re just not on the same page. Like there are little things that are happening to a well coached football team that have me questioning like are they out of bullets um in this situation? I’m not saying they’re going to be a bad football team or not make the playoffs. What I’m saying is like they don’t scare me as much as they did like a month or two ago. And as the offense looks like it’s coming down to earth a little bit mainly due to the injury to the quarterback around that. Um you know the defense is is an average at best group. You know obviously when they had sauce in it looked like there was some improvement there but now you’re going to be without him for a couple weeks. So um that I think that defense is going to be exposed a little bit too is the offense and they’re on the field a lot. Last week 91 plays. this week. I don’t know how many plays it was, but you know, last two weeks you teams you’re playing are averaging about 40 just under 40 minutes of possession. So, just just not the way you want to get it done. And guess where they Texans ran 71 plays. Yeah, 71 plays. But but Nate, in one sec before the half, third and 10 knowing this to me and this speaks to like maybe where they think the QB is or whatever, but like third and 10 before the half, you run the ball if I remember correctly. you don’t get the ball back out of the half and you know full well they’re going to get the ball. I don’t think you got the ball out of the half until like seven minutes unless I’m remembering it the wrong way. No. Yeah, they ran. I’m watching it. Yeah. So, anyways, um big win for the Texans. Big win for Demo Ryan. I’m happy for him.

Chris Long breaks down the Indianapolis Colts loss to the Texans. The Houston Texans, coming off a victory over the NFL’s best offense, looks like the best defense in the league. Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter wreck the edges and the middle of the field is a minefield with the Texans secondary. DeMeco Ryans has his team looking ready to take over the AFC South.

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