Week 15 Game Review - Houston Texans v. Tennessee Titans
Hey everyone TC here,
If you are a new subscriber to the Cap & Trade Newsletter, welcome! This newsletter covers the NFL salary cap and news across the league with additional coverage of the Houston Texans. I have been covering the Houston Texans since 2012 and 2017 as credentialed media, and have been working at OverTheCap.com for the past 7 years. I hope you find this newsletter informative and digestible. I do subscribe to a number of paywall-type websites for data sourcing and aggregation, but always looking for more sources. While this newsletter remains free, you can activate a paid subscription to assist in making this newsletter even better:
A huge win for the Houston Texans after fielding a game day roster without C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson, Nico Collins, Blake Cashman, and George Fant. Going into Tennessee with the Titans wearing the Houston Oiler throw back uniforms in an attempt to give the visiting fans and team the middle finger. Narrator: “It did not work”.
Surprisingly head coach Demeco Ryans gave the starting nod to Case Keenum over Davis Mills. A bit of a head scratcher at the time the story leaked on Friday. Mills had been QB2 (even QB1 during camp) all season long with Keenum as the game day inactive emergency third quarterback.
Keenum played admirably despite not seeing game day action for 2+ years. Was Keenum’s performance good? No. Was it sufficient for the situation? Yes.
The rust on Keenum was very apparent through the first 1.5 quarters with missed throws, not pulling the trigger on open receivers, and clues of the game speed beyond what Keenum was able to process. Luckily Keenum settled in midway through the 2nd quarter and found his way for some meaningful completions. Keenum will need to clean up those mistakes and misses as the Cleveland secondary is much better than what Tennessee presented.
Keenum finished the day with 229 yards on 23 completions on 36 attempts, 1 touchdown; and 1 interception that turned into a Pick 6. Noah Brown was Keenum’s preferred target finishing the day with 11 targets, 8 receptions, 82 receiving yards, and 1 touchdown.
The game day ball on the offensive side definitely goes to Devin Singletary and the offensive line. Singletary carried the rushing unit with 26 carries (of a team total 32 attempts) for 121 yards (team total of 148 yards). Finishing the day with a staggering 46.2% success rate Singletary has cleared defined himself as the RB1 for the Houston Texans.
Singletary rarely comes off the field no longer in a rotation with Dameon Pierce. Dare Ogunbowale has been the third down change of pace back.
Tennessee’s defensive line without Teair Tart (newly claimed to the Houston Texans roster) and pro bowler Jeffery Simmons is clearly one of the weakest units in the league. Houston’s offensive line was handling Tennessee’s interior players with easy on numerous inside power and inside counter runs. Creating running lanes not seen in sometime for the Houston rushing attack.
Houston’s defensive unit as a whole was fantastic today. The front defensive line continually generated pressure on rookie quarterback Will Levis.
Linebackers Christian Harris and Denzel Perryman were everywhere in both the run game and passing game. Their discipline in the run game and lane assignment was on point, working in tandem relying on each other’s responsibilities. The secondary held their own minus a few chunk plays, the coverage was sticky all day long. The receiver hand-offs from the intermediate to back end levels was smooth and efficient.
Houston returned to their tried and true zone concepts showing both Cover 3 and Cover 4 with some mixture of Cover 6. Demeco generally avoids Cover 6 when Jimmie Ward is not on the field, and unfortunately Ward left the game early with a concussion. We even saw the rare dime packaging with Amos, Pitre, and Carson-Houston on the field in third and very long situations.
Houston ran man coverage on just 8% of Tennessee’s drop backs (that’s 3 times), which is close to or below the team’s season average. For reference on why this is good to see, Houston ran man coverage over 30% in their loss to the New York Jets.
Demeco relied on 4 man front packages after seeing his defensive line work over the Titans offensive line mid-way through the second quarter. No need for stunts and odd pressure packages, Houston’s defensive line was straight up winning one on one battles consistently. The will to block eroded play after play for the Titans offensive line culminating in multiple sacks and tackles for loss in the 4th quarter and overtime.
Houston generated pressure on Will Levis on 44% of his drop backs, despite using 4 man pass rush packages on 75% of Levis’ drop backs. 8 of the 12 generated quarterback pressures came from a 4 man package, and 5 of the team’s 7 sacks also occurred with 4 man packages. This was Houston’s highest pressure to sack conversion rate all season…46%! By comparison in Weeks 1-14 Houston’s pressure to sack conversion rate was 15%.
The Tennessee rushing attack was completely devoid of any success again the Houston defensive front 7. Tennessee’s running backs were consistently hit at or near the line of scrimmage. The Titans finished with a -0.1 yards before contact on the day.
Film Review
Old school football review this week. Running the ball and defensive stops.
Preview of how the rest of the day would go for Tennessee with their pass protection.
Sheldon Rankins and Jon Greenard would walk their respective blockers with easy into Will Levi’s lap with pure power. Neither blocker is able to set with their base.
Christian Harris’s second half of the season renaissance continued on Sunday with solid run defense and excellent coverage skills to the flats.
Read, diagnose, attack. Harris read this flat to Henry with confidence and ease. This type of effort and performance occurred multiple times on Sunday. I could easily fill this newsletter with just Christian Harris plays.
Last week’s newsletter covered the Houston Texans’ rushing attack and where potential issues may lie. One area I noted for success was more inside zone and inside counters.
The offensive line shifts to the right for the zone concept with Scruggs promptly getting to the second level. Schultz walls off the back side with Tunsil crashing down the edge. Generating a nice cut back lane for Singletary.
Khalil Davis continues to get more snaps and show off his interior pass rush skills.
I wanted to show both angles to highlight not only the excellent pass rush from Davis and Collins, but to also highlight to excellent coverage for the Texans’ secondary. Levis had no chance.
Khalil Davis purely overpowers Skoronski on his way to Levis.
Houston is working 11 personnel with 21 personnel execution. Inside counter with two pullers. Brevin Jordan acts as the fullback working with Scruggs as the pulling guard. Heck and Scruggs get to the second level with Singletary’s ability to “get skinny” to find a running lane.
Houston would two plays later run play action from a similar formation with the Titans’ linebackers biting hard for an easy reception for Brevin Jordan. But hey this is about the defense and running game.
Defensive tackles Sheldon Ranks and Maliek Collins execute a nice stunt to allow a free rusher, however Jon Greenard uses great hand work to shed his blocker for the inside release to Levis for the sack.
This was a special play by Sheldon Rankins. Tennessee executes the trap running play and Rankins diagnoses it IMMEDIATELY. Rankins follows the foot work of the center. Run Stuff!
Derek Stingley continues to make things look easy. Houston in Cover 3 with man press with Nelson at the top of screen. This is classic Stingley in outside leverage, flipping the hips and trailing the receiver inside hip pocket for the pass break up. Stingley was actually disappointed he did not come down with the interception.
Speaking of Stingley…
We saw this against Denver with this split safety transition to Cover 3 with Pitre covering the dig route with Stingley in over the top coverage. Stingley effortlessly floats with Hopkins on the deep post with a perfect line on the ball for the pass break up. Again Stingley can make things looks too easy.
Instead of inside counter, Houston goes with inside power to the strong side with Schultz pulling to cover the back side defender. Scruggs turns his defender creating the lane for Singletary to PATIENTLY work through. NGS tracking has this play with 4 expected rushing yards. Singletary turned this into 19 yards (15 yards over expected).
Huge stop by the defense again late in the 4th quarter. Maliek Collins just tosses Skoronski to the side like a rag doll. The edge pressure from Jon Greenard forces Levis to step up in the pocket and Collins beats his man for the sack to kill the drive.
Collins continued his stellar 4th quarter performance into overtime with another tackle for loss. Collins splits the tackle and guard who are attempting to Duo up on Collins. The explosion exhibited by Collins allows him to break the double team for the quick tackle for loss.
Closing
A huge day for the offensive line and the run game, and a 2023 best performance from the Houston defense with emphasis on the defensive line.
Houston will have their hands full with Cleveland on both sides of the ball. The Cleveland defense is THE BEST in the league right now with some of the best pass rushers in the game. How will Houston counter? The team will have to rely heavily on the run game again and on veteran Case Keenum with CJ Stroud likely to miss another game due to concussion.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.
-TC