00:00All right, Andrew, we know three o'clock on Sunday, the Houston Texans are coming to town.
00:07What are your thoughts on this matchup?
00:09Biggest test of Drake May's career, and I'm not sure it's close, which that phrase for me is really tired and useless the way that we use it so often.
00:19But look, the Texans defense is one where they're not trying to trick you at all.
00:24They're like, we're not even going to waste our energy.
00:27We're good enough to line up.
00:28It'll be quarters or cover two in early downs.
00:31We're going to play some man, maybe blitz occasionally on third, and that's it.
00:35We're going to line up and kick your ass.
00:36And they've been second in DVOA.
00:38They've been first in EPA against the pass, third in takeaways, fourth in yards per play, pick a metric.
00:43They're near the top.
00:44And I get that Drake May, you know, did well against them last year.
00:49But think about how different the Patriots are 15 months ago from when that game was.
00:52The Texans are different, too.
00:54And this defense is as good as we've really seen in years outside of maybe Seattle this season.
01:00Yeah.
01:00It's something that we talked to Mike Dussault about earlier.
01:04John and I were talking about before the show.
01:06They just seem to be everywhere.
01:08And they seem to have multiple guys rushing the quarterback.
01:13And they look like they're blitzing when they're not blitzing because there are guys in the backfield.
01:19Like, I only saw two guys rushing at the start of this play.
01:23How are they both in the backfield already and surrounding the quarterback?
01:26And when they do get the ball away, there's two guys on every receiver.
01:30They seem to be playing with more than 11 players on the field at all times.
01:34Well, and that's the beauty of that style of defense.
01:36Like, you need a lot of talent just to line up and say, hey, here's our play sheet.
01:39This is what we're in.
01:40We're going to beat you anyway.
01:41But when you don't have to spend a lot of time on disguise or a bigger playbook, you get to focus in a lot more on what the opponent is doing that week.
01:48And every combination and look and concept and tendency.
01:52And so not only are they fast physically because those are the players that they've assembled, but mentally it's very quick, the recognition.
01:58So, yeah, there's a lot of that.
01:59Danil Hunter and Willie Anderson, I think it's 27 combined sacks in the regular season off the edges.
02:04Big problems.
02:04And then Sheldon Rankins gets a scoop and score last night for them up the middle.
02:09But, like, every single level, you know, Jalen Petrie could have been an all-pro at safety.
02:13They've got linebackers there who, just to your point.
02:16And they're fast, too.
02:17They remind me, like, you know, not to make it about the Lions, but the Lions, for their poor defenses over the years, you could see at least those guys are moving and they're swarming the ball.
02:26Now, would they be able to make a tackle when they got there?
02:29Rarely.
02:30Were they in position at the right time?
02:32No, but at least they're moving quick after the fact.
02:35These guys are moving quick when they need to.
02:38Or if they are trying to chase down a quarterback who's escaped the pocket, they're fast.
02:44And it's a nightmare.
02:46It's just an absolute nightmare.
02:48The old coaching saying is, like, if you're going to make a mistake, make it fast.
02:51You know, fly in there and kind of screw something up for the offense on your way to screwing up yourself.
02:56And that's what they do.
02:57They also don't really miss tackles.
02:58So this is not going to be, let's just put them in space, you know, early in the second half against L.A., which is also a decent tackling defense.
03:05You know, Mindre Stevenson gets his 10-yard gain on a little swing pass, one-on-one along the sideline.
03:11He's kind of pinned.
03:12Makes a man slip, gets a first down.
03:13And for an offense that then hit only three points at halftime, like, that's, 10 yards is good.
03:18But it's also kind of invigorating to be like, okay, we can move the ball.
03:22And there are chinks in the armor here.
03:23The red zone defense for Houston isn't particularly good.
03:26But you're watching that game last night.
03:28And even though CJ Stroud looks like a mole for the Steelers or a sportsbook somewhere, you're just going, they're going to wait you out.
03:36Because over time, this defense is just going to swarm and suffocate you.
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