Run the ball, and stop the run.
It’s one of the oldest clichés on what determines NFL success. But if there’s much truth to it, the Texans’ potential breakthrough season might already be in some trouble.
With Reggie Bush out with a calf injury, the Saints (2-0) gashed the Texans (1-1) on Saturday night at Reliant Stadium for 173 rushing yards on a whopping 6.4 yards per carry, dominating Houston in every phase in a 38-14 preseason victory.
Making matters more embarrassing, the Saints rushed for 8.6 yards per attempt in the first half against Texans’ starters.
Where’s Bush and his meager 3.7 average when you need it?
“In all three phases, they were more physical than we were as a team,” Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said. “It’s a humbling game. We definitely got pushed around and we’ve got to play a lot better than that up front to have a chance to be successful.”
Houston struggled running the ball on offense as well, gaining 70 yards
on 25 carries for a 2.8 average. Starter Steve Slaton was productive
with 30 yards on six carries, but none of the team’s four backups could
even break the three yards-per-carry mark.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball,” Kubiak said.
The Texans’ off-season blueprint largely concentrated on defense, and
specifically giving Mario Williams more help rushing the quarterback.
The team’s first two draft picks — linebacker Brian Cushing and
defensive end Connor Barwin — went this route, as did the $34 million
signing of Arizona defensive end Antonio Smith to play opposite
Williams.
They also replaced former defensive coordinator Richard Smith with Frank Bush, who promised a more aggressive style.
To that end, the Texans’ pass rush improved in the first two pre-season games, particularly with the first unit.
However, a closer look reveals the Texans’ run defense was
statistically worse than its pass unit in 2008, ranking 23rd in the
league. The previous two years of the Kubiak era weren’t much better,
with the team ranking 19th and 20th.
“It wasn’t anything scheme-wise that was wrong,” Williams said of the
Texans’ problems on Saturday. “We were just in the wrong place.”
The run defense starts up front with the defensive tackles, and their
play was abysmal in Saturday’s home debut. While 2007 first-round pick
Amobi Okoye showed flashes in pressuring Drew Brees, he and fellow
tackle Frank Okam were neutralized in the running game and routinely
pushed several yards off the line. It was bad enough that former Texans
castoff Mike Bell rushed 10 times for 100 yards and a touchdown.
“We were expecting our guys to kind of fly around and do some things
differently, and it didn’t work out that way,” Frank Bush said. “We
have to re-evaluate.”
It’s not as ominous as it might seem. The Texans are missing Cushing
(knee injury) and cornerback Dunta Robinson (holdout), and each are
outstanding tacklers for their positions. Both should be back for the
regular season.
Also, starting nose tackle DelJuan Robinson — a 6-3, 320 pound run
stuffer as a rookie last year — was out with an injury, pushing Okam
into the starting unit.
Okam made an impact in the Texans’ preseason-opening win in Kansas
City, but it came largely against backups for a Chiefs team that went
2-14 last season.
As a whole, the Texans vowed a renewed defensive intensity after the
game. They’ll need it when Adrian Peterson and the now Brett Favre-led
Vikings come to Reliant next week for nationally televised Monday Night
Football.
“They’re a very, very physical football team, they run the ball as good
as anyone in football, so we’ll see the answer Monday night,” Kubiak
said.
Traditionally, the third preseason game is each team’s true dress
rehearsal, in which it plays starters for around three quarters and
practices regular season gameplans.
In the end, these are only exhibitions, of course. The Lions went 4-0
in the 2008 preseason before becoming the first 0-16 team in NFL
history. But for the Texans, everything is under a microscope.
Following back-to-back 8-8 seasons, off-season improvements and an
apparently weaker schedule, the pressure and expectations are squarely
on them to deliver their first winning season and contend for the
playoffs. And even though Saturday’s loss won’t count in the ultimate
standings, they would certainly prefer the momentum to turn around.
“We’ve just got to stand up and say that we’re not going to let that
happen,” quarterback Matt Schaub said. “We can’t wait for a play to be
made by somebody else on our team. We need to have guys who go out
there and say, ‘I’m going to make the play,’ and go and do it.”
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.