Breaking Down Broncos vs. Texans with 5-Time Pro Bowl Tackle, Terron Armstead | PFF

Breaking Down Broncos vs. Texans with 5-Time Pro Bowl Tackle, Terron Armstead | PFF

Okay, we’ve got the Broncos and the Texans, which is a very exciting 100 pm or early slate game, I should say, because there’s some people that aren’t watching on the East Coast. Early slate game. Broncos and Texans. And I think this is going to be a fun one. The chess match between Shawn Payeyton and Demo Ryan. That’s going to be a lot of fun. So, for this game, we had to get our guy Terron Armstead back with us here to break down the trenches part of this one and the Broncos offensive line, specifically going up against a nil Hunter and Will Anderson. Let’s listen to what he had to say. Switching it up a little bit with our guy Terron Armstead here as we are previewing the Denver Broncos and the Houston Texans. Look, I think that the headlines of this one, Terron, are of course Denell Hunter, Will Anderson, how great of pass rushers those guys are above 24 24.0 passers win percentage this season for both of those guys. Elite pass rush grades. We know what they can do getting after the passer. But I actually think the matchup that is the most intriguing is how this Broncos offensive line, specifically their offensive tackles, is going to be a part of what is one of the better run blocking units in the NFL. And coming off of the heels of what was the perfectly blocked play, that RJ Harvey touchdown that we had last week. I sort of wanted to pick your brain about the run blocking side of things. So when you look at the Denver Broncos, and you know, obviously you played offensive tackle in the NFL. I I want to ask you about what the differences are between the downhill run game and then more of that outside mid zone run game. What you kind of need for both of those. And let’s start with the power run game. What makes a great power run game? Some techniques, some talents that you have to have to be able to execute that at an NFL level. Yeah, for sure, Trevor. Uh I would say for all teams at first you you establish an identity. So you got teams that that is a power team, a downhill team, power duo. You have teams that’s outside zone is more stretch. Um the the um points of attack like you you find your consistent day one install. This is what our running game will be built off of. So you got to have a certain personnel for that. and and in Denver, Quinn Miners may be the him and Quinn Nelson may be the two most power producing Olman in the NFL. So for them, they run a lot of power. They run a lot of duo. But the key to the run game, Trevor, and this is kind of like it’s not a secret, but it’s unknown to most, is that you have your identity and what you what you hang your hat on, but in order for the in order for that to work, you have to have your change up. So, the way the Denver Broncos can go really just line up and go downhill, get four yards, but then they they surprise you with an outside run with a pinning and pull and they get RJ Harvey out in space and they get these guys who’s been double teaming in the D lineman, they’re up to the second level, third level. So, so mixing in those change ups and then also play action. So, if you can have a play action off that power game and duo game and you can have a change up to where you can quickly get outside the defense because everybody’s loading the box, that’s what makes your your bread and butter works, those those small outliers. So for these offensive tackles that we have for the Broncos, Mike McGlini and Garrett BS, you these are guys that have the ability to be pretty big difference makers in the run game, but you talked about the power run game that Denver has been executing throughout the season and that’s really the identity that they’ve leaned on from your side of things as an offensive tackle. When you think about things like that and okay, Denver’s more of a downhill run team, but they need to have that change up, need to be able to stretch it and have those pin and pulls, get to the sideline a little bit. for you as an offensive tackle, what went into sort of that sort of run scheme of of being more of that down because a lot of times when we think of downhill and power run games, we think of those duo double teams that happen a lot in the middle. We focus a lot more on like the center and the guard, but from the offensive tackles perspective, what do these two guys do to really complement a powerful interior offensive line that Denver has? Yeah. So, for the the two tackles for the Broncos, Garrett Bose, Mike Glinty, the way that that these guys pass protect is they’re they’re one of the tops in the league and they have been consistently through their career, but you’re going against two guys in Denil Hunter and Will Anderson that are elite pass rushers. So, they will be favored in the pass rush against any tandem, any tackle tandem. So, as an offensive tackle, when I know I’m going against an elite rusher, I want to beat him up in the run game. I want to take every opportunity we have to when we hand the ball off, I want to go at him. I want It’s all body blows. That’s what we call it. We It’s straight body blows. Rib shots to the gut gut punch, all those. So, for these two guys, for the Broncos, they have to be able to to impose their will in the run game. And if you can do that, if you can consistently move these guys off the line of scrimmage, you don’t have to get into many pass opportunities, you don’t have to get in too many obvious pass situations, you can continue to have those body blows and run the ball downhill. Denver is doing a fantastic job with that. Anything that you can do to just create a little bit of hesitation with these top tier pass rushers, it’s something that you got to do. Last thing for you because I saw you I saw you tweet about this in relation to I think it was that RJ Harvey touchdown where you played for Shawn Payeyton who was obviously the head coach of the Denver Broncos now. And you tweeted out how when you were playing for Shawn Peyton, Shawn would have like two or three plays every single week that he said was like 1,000% this is going to be a touchdown. And you said that he would tell you in the week of practice leading up to the game, he’d go, “This is when we’re going to call it. This is what the defense is going to be in. This is how we’re going to score.” And you said that when that happened on game day, you guys would just laugh, maybe even before the ball was snapped, cuz it’s exactly what he said it was going to be. Just talk to me a little bit more about that. I love to hear about just playing for Shawn Peyton and obviously it mean a lot for this matchup here that we’re previewing. Yeah, man. the guy the guy his offensive foresight his his feel for the game and understanding of the game and how defenses have to present certain looks in order to try to stop what we’re presenting on offense is second to none. He every week Trevor I you every single week no matter the defense no matter where we were playing he had at least two three plays that he’s going to show and he will stand on it. I I’m willing to go to bat on this 100 a thousand%. This is a touchdown on Sunday. And uh when it happens, man, it’s a a same route same route to Jimmy Graham or a back pylon throw to Mike Thomas or just something and you just laugh. But for for Shawn, the way that he creates the the matchups through personnel and motions, he knows exactly what the defense have to run. So if he has Jimmy Graham spread all the way out to the left and the trips on the right, he knows you guys have to run a form of cover two. You have to or else, you know what I mean, you have no chance, right? His uh his offensive foresight was was insane. And in some weeks he will have eight plays, 10 plays, it’s a touchdown. And that’s when we had those big offensive explosions. Man, I there’s I think in this matchup there’s so many just little mini chess games that are going to be going on between the Broncos and the Texans. Shawn Payeyton versus Demo Ryan’s. Yeah, that’s going to be the big time chess matchup, right? That’s the That’s the queen versus the queen on the chess board of how these guys are going to orchestrate the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball. Uh Terron, we appreciate it as always, my friend. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. I appreciate you. We got him. Okay, Trevor, you’re muted, I think. Maybe. Oh, got the sound going. There you go. I don’t Now we’re good. We probably cut it during the during the cut there. I love I love hearing from Toronto. I love uh getting to uh sort of pick his brain and have his experience there. I was chitchatting with him with him a little bit afterwards. I should have asked him this question when we were still rolling and I was like, is there like a specific example? And he talked about he thinks it was in 2018 2019 that year that the San Francisco 49ers were Super Bowl contenders. I think when they went to the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, they had a a fantastic defense. Defense was playing so so well that year. And uh he’s like, “We went in I He’s like we put 40 plus on them.” And like that was one of those games where Shawn for whatever reason he he knew exactly what he was looking at and it was a game that nobody saw coming as a high-scoring affair and he’s like I actually think we lost that game. But we scored a lot of points on it and that was one that he remembered. So I love getting to talk to him about that. But this specific matchup, the Broncos, the Texans, what do you want to talk about here first? I’m going to mention the Texans pass protection in a second. One thing I want to throw out there on your side of things here with the Broncos offense. I loved what Terron talked about with having those change ups, having a lot of variety in your run schemes. And this was something I was actually looking at this week for the Indianapolis Colts, but the Broncos and Colts are two of four teams in the NFL that do not run any single run concept 25% of the time. They have this variety of run scheme in there. So, not only do they have talented offensive linemen, talented backs, but the variety of schemes that they have really helps their run game out as I just love that Terron threw that in there cuz so many teams you go, “Okay, you got certain teams that run outside zone 60% of the time, right? You know what’s coming during the week. You just have to be able to stop it.” There is an element with Shawn Peyton’s offense there that you don’t know what you have to stop any given week because he’s just responding and reading what your defense is doing on a weekly basis. I’ll go to the Texans offensive side here real quick. Their pass protection has come on the last three weeks and it’s been a big reason for greater offensive success. If you look at the Texans pass blocking the last three weeks, 75.6 6 pass blocking grade and they’re allowing the lowest pressure rate and the lowest knockdown rate up front of any team in the league over the last three weeks. And that last point there is the biggest part, a 72.3 pass blocking grade against the Blitz. That’s one of the better marks in the league over the last few weeks. And that’s really a big deal. Earlier in the season, they could stop a standard four-man rush and they could function against him. But once teams started blitzing, it was a huge problem. They’re doing a better job up front. They moved Titus Howard back to right tackle after week one. And I think that’s been a big help. Ev Ingram has been a revelation at right guard. They’ve got a a combination of guys, a rotation at left guard between Juice Scrugs and Lake and Tomlinson, the veteran. But this pass protection has been a lot better. The Denver Broncos are a step up though. They’re second in the NFL in pressure rate. And they bring a lot of fiveman rushes with all those defensive linemen, Nick Bonito, and all those guys that they have. But if the Texans can pass protect, they get to be a lot better team because that was the biggest question about them coming into the season. the last three weeks they’ve done a really good job of it. Yeah. And just to emphasize again on on the Broncos side of things how good they have been as a run blocking unit. 74.9 run blocking grade as a team that’s sixth best in the NFL this season. They’re 12th in impact run blocking percentage which we’ve talked about here before on the show. That’s when a player gains a positive grade, not just a neutral grade, but a positive grade as a run blocker. They are 12th in total impact run blocking percentage and then 16th in defeated run blocking percentage, which is the opposite. whenever you gain a negative play there. But this team has the ability, as we saw last week with the R.J. Harvey touchdown, to put it all together and make it so you have no chance. You just have no chance against this offensive line. So, as long as that’s rolling, as long as they stay balanced, I feel good about where the Broncos are. I think this is going to be a game of the week type of game. And so, for my prediction here, for the first time this season, I said Texans 24, Broncos 21, but in overtime. I’m predicting overtime here. We’re going to overtime at 21-21 and then the Texans are going to win 24-21. That That’s only funny cuz Max and I on the college preview yesterday were talking about certain teams and we were like, should we start calling out overtime? Because I think it was Virginia who’s been playing overtime games every single week. I’m like, well, should we start calling this out? And then of course you come on here and do it. That’s kind of funny. But I’ve got the Texans also 21 to 20. Something does something feel fishy about them being favored in this game. Does that feel a little weird? I just something something about it feels and I wonder too the big thing that’s going to get talked about is the Pat Certan injury and he’s going to be out for this week and I I think normally with Certan in there and I know that the the Texans have some other threats all of them that went to Iowa State emerging lately as legitimate weapons but you feel like this would have been a spot where we would have seen Pat Certan shadowed on Nico Collins right and you get that prime time matchup but I would expect to see more Jade Baron who’s been kind of only working in dime situations right you’ve got Jaquan McMillan you’ve got Riley Moss out there, but I think that could be a big loss. And the the matchup manto man at times with Nico Collins on some of these other guys with Patrick Satan out that could make a big difference. I’ve got the Texans 21 to 20. I’m with you. It’s going to be very close. Yeah, this line actually opened with the Broncos being favored on the road by a point and a half. And now it is the Texans who are favored by a point and a half. We’re recording the show on a Wednesday, so the Lions can obviously change as they have throughout the beginning part of this week, but they think this is a pretty even game and Vegas has even given a little bit of the advantage to the Houston Texans. So, us both saying that they are going to win this game shouldn’t be as much of a surprise to people. Uh especially with some of those numbers that you mentioned with the Texans offensive line handling the blitz a little bit

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Denver Broncos and The Houston Texans.

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