Whether To Be Concerned About Texans Pass Defense

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The Texans pass defense gave up some explosive plays, even in victory, against the Colts. Should it be concerning?

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00:00The two biggest concerns I've seen coming out of this win, Seth, from Texan fans are

00:07pass protection and those big, gigantic chunk plays on defense. I'm not worried about the

00:12pass protection because we've seen them pass protect at a good enough level before. I don't

00:19know what to make of the big plays downfield. What's your thoughts on that?

00:22I think that I do. Well, part of it is that it's two of them involve Jimmy Ward also.

00:28The one to Alec Pierce at the end of the game, that's one where Jimmy Ward, it wasn't like

00:35he was in an awful, awful position. Now, if it was a better thrown football, it wouldn't

00:39have been a contested pass, but it was a contested catch and Jimmy Ward didn't look anywhere

00:47close to making a play on the ball on that. The touchdown early, Jimmy Ward could have

00:53been in a better position on that. He had room to intercept the route and everything

00:59or to catch the route. I don't know if he could athletically catch up to it. He wasn't

01:04in position on those plays. That's the biggest concern, I think. Is that something that gets

01:10cleaned up or is that just that Jimmy Ward is in his 30s and not that guy anymore? That's

01:18the big concern. Now, the other one big is Derek Singley can't whiff on the play where

01:25A.D. Mitchell was just wide open and you're relying on the erratic arm of Anthony Richardson

01:33to not make that throw.

01:34You're right. On the one hand, when it comes to these big chunk plays, yeah, these are

01:38big, huge plays. Now, they're plays that Anthony Richardson is, at least a couple of them,

01:43I don't know that there's many other quarterbacks that are making those throws. You can look

01:48at it one of two ways. On the one hand, aside from those big chunk plays, Anthony Richardson

01:55was awful throwing the football, statistically at least, six of 16, 41 yards and one interception.

02:02On the other hand, as you just pointed out, if he just gets to be average at dropping

02:08the ball in the bucket to guys downfield, the Colts probably win this football game.

02:13Anthony, A.D. Mitchell, A.D. Mitchell was running, as you said, he was wide open twice

02:20down the field, wide open.

02:23I think a lot of it, too, just comes down to, all right, Kalen Bullock got 25 snaps

02:29in that game at safety.

02:31That might be the fix.

02:33Honestly, I went through and just did a brief view. I went through and searched for the

02:37plays that he was in on. I didn't see a whole lot to worry about. The biggest thing that

02:42guys, that coaches worry about with a young player is, okay, can I trust this guy? Kalen

02:49Bullock didn't give you any reason not to trust him. He makes that interception. It

02:54was very, very nice. Plays 25 snaps in that game. I think he probably plays more snaps

03:00this week.

03:01Yeah.

03:03Like we said, with Jimmy Ward, man, it's that athletically maybe he's not the same

03:07guy anymore. Also, man, some of it's just on the stuff that you expect the veteran safety

03:13not to do is be in the right spot, pick up the routes, do all that stuff. After one game,

03:19I'm feeling more excited about the potential for Kalen Bullock than I am for how it might

03:24play out for Jimmy Ward this year. We might start to see a little bit of the changing

03:28of the guard as they give Kalen Bullock more reps.

03:30Yep. We'll see. Will Anderson Jr. met with the media yesterday. He talked about the Texans'

03:35ability to win close games.

03:37Yeah, man. Like I said, we just have a bunch of players that know how to win, man. We have

03:40a bunch of players that know what it takes to win, how to win, and we just have that

03:43bend-but-don't-break mentality, man. I think it's very special of the group of guys that

03:47we have here. If we won't beat or not, we're going to go out there and impose our will,

03:50man, and we're going to go swarm. I think it's just the vet stepping up, leader stepping

03:54up, and the playmaker stepping up to make it happen.

03:56I don't want to sound like somebody who's picky about the way my team wins. I don't

04:01know that the Texans are at a stage yet where we can be that way, like, oh, they're winning,

04:06but it's not convincing enough. I'll say this. There are a lot of these close games, Sunday's

04:11game included, several of last year's close games, because they were seven and three in

04:14one-score games, where it just doesn't have to be this way. If the Texans just maintain

04:20focus through some crucial parts of the game, these are double-digit wins, you know?

04:27Yeah, if you're going to play the game like, okay, if you're arguing with a Colts fan,

04:31a Colts fan's going to say, hey, if Anthony Richardson makes a couple of those throws,

04:35we win that convincingly. That's fair enough. The problem is that Anthony Richardson did

04:40exactly what Anthony Richardson has always done, is that he makes some circus throws,

04:46but he also just is not consistent enough as a passer. So, long-term, all right, great,

04:51yeah, you're going to win a few of those, but from the Texans' standpoint, they physically

04:56dominated the Colts. Look at that. They ran twice as many plays as the Colts did. They

05:00ran down the Colts' throat. They just, they physically dominated the Colts on a play-by-play

05:07basis. It's these mental errors that you got to clean up, and perhaps just some of the

05:12coverage stuff that you can fix by Kaelin Bullock coming along, or whatever else it

05:16might be, and then the blocked punt. You know, that's on the Texans. The Colts were better.

05:22We talked, Casario in the pregame mentioned about how good the Colts' punt rush was, and

05:28so that's a known thing. Like, that was a huge swing in that game, but it's very correctable,

05:34and you don't want to expect it. I think win or lose, the thing, like, if the Texans had

05:38lost that game, I would be talking about the exact same things, just with a different tone

05:42of voice, but I'd be talking about the coverage errors. I'd be talking about Jimmy Ward. I would

05:46be talking about all those things, but I would also be pointing out that on a down-by-down basis,

05:52they physically dominated the Colts. They just have to, you got to iron out some of these wrinkles.

05:57If you're going to do the old Jeff Van Gundy things and not ignore in victory what you would

06:02address in defeat, those are some very glaring things that will cost you games versus a quarterback

06:07like Pat Mahomes. Pat Mahomes hits A.D. Mitchell. Pat Mahomes hits that easy first down on the

06:13first series. Pat Mahomes hits all those plays. Pat Mahomes did it in the opener. He had a wide

06:19open receiver after a coverage gaffe, so that's the part that you just, you got to iron these

06:24things out by the time they get to these better quarterbacks.

06:26That's a great one, and that was to Xavier Worthy, A.D. Mitchell's teammate and draft classmate.

06:31Another super fast rookie. Let's not lose track of the super fast rookie, please.

06:36From Texas, yeah, that's same school. C.J. Stroud, this you can count on. C.J. Stroud on third and

06:44fourth down in the Colts game, nine of nine, 85 yards, two touchdowns. Now, he was sacked three

06:52times. We don't like that on third and fourth down, but he was two carries for 15 yards. He

06:58had that 13-yard scramble, and then he had the little two-yard scramble to get it down near the

07:02goal line on the, eventually the digs touchdown on fourth down, but nine for nine for 85 yards,

07:09and I'm telling you, go back. It's on Twitter somewhere. There's a lot of people who post it.

07:14I'm guessing Houston Stressens has it up. Garrett collects this stuff as good as anybody,

07:19these plays from games. The third and 11 to Nico Collins, the behind the quarterback,

07:25all 22 view of it, it belongs in a museum. This throw by C.J. to Nico Collins does not look real.

07:36It looks computer generated. It's so good. It's really, really good. It's impressive,

07:41and then you likewise to look at, so those are C.J. Stroud's third and fourth down plays. How

07:49was Anthony Richardson? If you take out the big plays, which I don't want to discount,

07:53that's a threat, but just in terms of how consistent is Anthony Richardson,

07:58he had those big plays. If you subtract those three big plays, how was he on third and fourth

08:02down? I don't know how he was on third and fourth down. I don't, yeah. Just in general,

08:05without those big plays. Yeah, without those big plays. Without those big plays for the game,

08:10he was six of 16 for 41 yards in an interception.

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