Justin Houston returned to dominance at the perfect time for the Chiefs

Welcome back Justin Houston!

I guess if you want to be technical about it, Houston — #WellActually — returned in Week 11 against the Bucs. That version of Justin Houston, however, looked quite rusty after all of his time away from the field.

The dude who showed up for Sunday Night Football against the Broncos, though?

That was a helluva lot more like what I’m used to seeing when No. 50 for the Kansas City is on the field.

Of course if it had taken longer for Houston to round back into form, it would’ve been pretty hard to blame him. A knee injury forced him to miss the Chiefs’ last five regular season games last year and had him looking like a shell of himself in the playoffs. It also forced him to have surgery this past February to repair his ACL. Even with the advancements of modern medicine, just about the earliest anybody comes back from an ACL repair to play football is around nine months later, so (does math in my head ... carry the one) Houston’s return to the lineup was pretty much right on schedule.

The tricky thing, however, is that a lot of guys come back in nine months, but not all — and maybe not most of them — come back playing at the level that they previously had right away.

It makes a lot of sense when you really think about it. That much time being away from doing “football things” combined with having to actually gain trust in your knee again ... Let’s just say I can understand why it might take some guys a little longer to get used to playing again.

Hell, the Justin Houston I watched play against Tampa Bay just a week ago definitely looked like he was going to take awhile to get back to dominating. He didn’t look nearly as explosive as he normally would and he wasn’t quite as sharp with his technique as I’m used to him being. Houston also looked a little stiff as a pass rusher, something I wouldn’t have ever imagined saying about him previously.

Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much of that to change against Denver. If anything, I thought Houston might actually go backward a bit after experiencing that initial soreness that generally comes from real hitting in his first game this season. It didn’t seem fair to expect much more than that, and I didn’t want to put unrealistic expectations on the guy.

Ironically enough, the cat who replaced Houston in the starting lineup this season while he was hurt, Dee Ford, had been on a tear of late. He notched 6.5 sacks in Weeks 8, 9, and 10, which put him at 10 sacks in the first 10 weeks of the season. That also put him among the NFL’s leaders.

But Ford ended up injuring his hamstring in that same game a week ago against the Bucs, which meant he wouldn’t be available against the Broncos. Ready or not, the Chiefs were going to have to lean on Houston even more and hope that he could provide much more of a pass rush presence than he had against the Buccaneers.

To add even more spice to that meatball, there was also the fact that the Chiefs’ opponents on Sunday night happen to employ an outstanding pass rusher of their own.

Maybe you’ve heard of the guy?

Von Miller?

He’s just the reigning Super Bowl MVP, who also happens to have had 9.5 sacks of his own this season before the game, and is a leading candidate for 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year.

You know, nbd.

With all of that swirling around in the background of that game, all Justin Houston did was go out on that field and have one of the most productive days by an edge rusher that I have seen this season.

Seriously.

Now, I’m not just talking about his pass rushing, but hot damn, Houston was coming off the edge on Sunday.

I have to tell you, there aren’t many times (really, not a single time) that I can remember having ever seen a situation where one offensive lineman gets benched before the game and then gets un-benched during the game unless there was an injury involved. But Houston torched Denver right tackle Ty Sambrailo so relentlessly and completely in the first half Sunday night, that the Broncos pretty much had to insert the previously benched Donald Stephenson back into the lineup, just to try to stop the bleeding.

Because Houston didn’t get any more sacks after halftime, I’m sure some folks will think Stephenson shut him down in the second half. The truth is, Houston was torching Stephenson, too. It’s just that the refs let Stephenson get away with a few obvious holds and Denver’s quarterback started anticipating Houston coming for him. But even with all that, Houston still got some important pressures in the second half. I will get to those in a minute.

I want to go back to talking about those sacks first, all three of ‘em, because they so perfectly demonstrate why I’m so big on guys having great pass-rushing technique. See, Houston still didn’t look quite as explosive as he was pre-injury to me, but his technique was back on point this week and that can make a huge difference when your get-off isn’t what it used to be.

Look at the first sack with a little over 10 minutes left in the first quarter.

Houston initially looks like he is going with a long-arm move, pushing Sambrailo in his chest with his right arm extended. As soon as Sambrailo tries to sit down on that move, Houston swipes Sambrailo’s outside hand off with his left hand, steps wide with his left foot with his hips turned toward the quarterback, and rips through with his right arm, leaving Sambrailo standing there like he had cement shoes on for a clean win.

That move also helped Houston shorten the corner so that he had almost a straight line to get from Sambrailo to Trevor Siemian, and he got there in a damn hurry.

Point being, when you have great technique, you don’t have to run a 4.5 to be able to get around the edge and sack the quarterback.

Check out the second sack with just over nine minutes left in the second quarter.

This time, Houston found another way to make Sambrailo stop his feet. Houston had been bull rushing quite a bit between that first sack and this one, so he went right at Sambrailo as if he was coming down the middle of him with power again.

As soon as he saw Sambrailo set his hips down and slow his kick step to prepare for contact, Houston did a swiper move on Sambrailo’s outstretched hands and once again stepped wide to get around him.

Sambrailo couldn’t recover quickly enough to push Houston. With the corner shortened again, Houston had another straight line to Siemian. Even with Siemian seeing him coming this time and trying to scurry away from him, Houston was still able to get him on the ground for a loss of 5 yards.

On the third sack with 6:20 left in the second quarter, Houston was lined up in a wide-three technique on the left guard. It’s pretty much the way we have come to expect Seattle defensive end/tackle Michael Bennett to line up inside on passing downs, except that Houston was still standing up, whereas Bennett is usually down in a three-point stance.

At the snap, Houston and the Chiefs’ other longtime outside linebacker, Tamba Hali, who was lined up outside of him, ran a pass-rush game. Hali got up field for a couple of steps to attract the left tackle’s attention, while Houston got up field between the left guard Max Garcia and left tackle Russell Okung.

After those couple of steps, Hali looped inside behind Houston to the A gap. Initially, Garcia was trying to block Houston, but Houston sunk a rip move on him pretty quickly. Then when Garcia saw Hali coming inside, he completely let Houston go to try and block Hali.

The first problem with this decision by Garcia was that because Houston all but had him beat upfield already, Okung had absolutely no shot to block him. The second problem, for Denver at least, was that this play happened at their own 8-yard line. Houston was in the backfield so fast that Siemian simply had no time to react and in addition to getting the sack, Houston also managed to knock the ball out in the end zone.

Okung ended up falling on the ball to recover it, so the Chiefs had to settle for a safety rather than a touchdown. But it just so happened that Kansas City returned the ensuing punt for a touchdown.

Nine points instead of seven is a pretty good trade-off I’d say.

That’s three different sacks from three different ways of getting to the quarterback, and that just skimmed the surface of what Houston did as a pass rusher on Sunday night.

Let’s talk about him flatfoot running Sambrailo slap the hell over with about 10 minutes left to go in the first quarter to force a holding penalty.

Lets talk about the slap rip he beat Sambrailo with to force Siemian to step up into a sack by Chiefs defensive end Kendall Reyes on the very next play.

Lets talk about the quick arm-over inside he put on Stephenson to beat him clean early in the third quarter. Houston got to Siemian so fast that he hit his hand just as he was about to release the ball and forced the incompletion.

How about the play where Houston beat Stephenson with a straight rip move and got held from behind, which allowed Siemian to run around and throw a touchdown? Yeah, I know the refs didn’t call it, but I also know Stephenson knows he got his ass beat on that play.

Then we can talk about how in overtime Houston faked like he was going inside to get Stephenson leaning and then beat him with a rip move outside to get Siemian down from behind after he barely escaped for a 1-yard gain.

And after all of that we can look at that third-and-10 with a little over a minute left in overtime where Siemian throws up a deep ball off his back foot to Emmanuel Sanders, who can’t quite haul it in. Yeah, the Chiefs were blitzing inside but go back and look at who had beat Stephenson with a rip move and was right in Siemian’s face forcing him to throw off his back foot in the first place.

Most weeks, the plays I went through above might be enough to get you Hoss of the Week, but I have to say that this time around there were several other serious contenders.

Earlier in the day on Sunday, I thought JPP might be my first ever back-to-back winner with his three sacks and a touchdown against the Browns. Then Khalil Mack was none too shabby himself against the Panthers with his ridiculous and historic stat line: sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery, interception and a touchdown. That hadn’t been done since Charles Woodson did it in 2009. Hell, even the aforementioned Von Miller balled out on Sunday night, too, notching three sacks of his own against the Chiefs.

But see, Justin Houston did more than just pass rush against Denver.

A lot more.

The guy also had seven other tackles, two of which went for a loss, and two others went for no gain, including one on a third-and-1 early in the first quarter, which forced the Broncos to punt.

It also did not escape me that all three of Houston’s sacks came on third downs.

So let’s put this all together: three drive-ending sacks; three other pressures; one caused fumble for a safety; two tackles for a loss; two tackles for no gain, including one to stop another drive; three other tackles; and he forced a holding call.

And a partridge in a damn tree.

On a night where the game came down to literally the last five seconds of overtime, every big play mattered. Houston made a ton of them to help the Chiefs get that win.

I really didn’t think Justin Houston had that kind of performance in him yet coming off that knee injury and all, but he obviously had a different idea. On a weekend full of great performances from pass rushers, Houston’s was the cream of the crop. That’s why he is my Hoss of the Week for Week 12 of the NFL season.

Welcome back, welcome back. welcome baaaaaaaack.