The Houston Texans are back to relying on Brock Osweiler after Tom Savage suffered a concussion in Week 17. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the AFC South champions, who will again have to hope the team’s unfortunate offseason acquisition plays to a level that even comes close to justifying his four-year, $72 million contract.
Jadeveon Clowney and the Texans’ No. 1 defense could be a problem in the playoffs
Jadeveon Clowney stepped up in J.J. Watt’s absence and the Texans quietly became a dominant team on defense.
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The 2017 NFL playoffs are here
Osweiler finished the regular season with 15 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, and he was benched in Week 15 before being forced back into action in Week 17. Even if the team parts ways with the quarterback after the 2017 season, leaving them on the hook for only $6 million in dead money in 2018 and $3 million in 2019, the Texans still gave $37 million guaranteed to Osweiler and he’ll count $25 million against the salary cap in 2017.
That contract could’ve been a truly disastrous setback for the franchise if the team didn’t have arguably the NFL’s best defense. Even without J.J. Watt, the Texans quietly shut down opposing offenses on a weekly basis.
Texans defense got the team in the playoffs all on its own
Houston held seven teams under 300 yards of total offense, and finished the year with the fewest yards allowed in the NFL. But the dominant defense went unheralded because it didn’t even finish top 10 in points allowed.
Thanks to an offense that finished No. 19 in the NFL in turnovers and No. 28 in yards per drive, the average starting field position for opposing offenses was on the 29.9-yard line.
Even when Savage replaced Osweiler, the Texans offense did nothing. It managed just 250 yards and finished with just one rushing touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals defense in Week 16, but Houston still got the victory because its own defense locked down the Bengals offense in a 12-10 win.
While the defense didn’t force many turnovers in 2016, it still managed to get a takeaway in each of the last eight weeks of the season.
The first No. 1 finish in total defense in Texans franchise history came despite the fact that three-time AP Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt was sidelined for 13 games after requiring back surgery in September.
Without him, another former first-round pick stepped up and played like a star in his absence.
Jadeveon Clowney became the nightmare he was projected to be
The hype around the No. 1 selection in the 2014 NFL Draft was legendary, dating all the way back to his high school days. Even before he made a Michigan running back explode four years ago in the Outback Bowl, he was considered a future No. 1 pick. But in his injury-plagued rookie season in the NFL, he tallied a grand total of seven tackles.
More injuries kept him out of the starting lineup for seven games in 2015, but Clowney rebounded to become Houston’s only Pro Bowl player in 2016.
“I’d say I probably never lost the confidence to play football,” Clowney told ESPN. “I always knew I could play football. I think other people probably lost more confidence in me than I did in myself.
“I’d say to myself, ‘Just wait until I get healthy.’ I just kept saying that to myself: ‘Just wait until you get healthy, and everything else is going to take care of itself.’ I always knew I could play.”
Clowney’s emergence as a difficult problem for opposing offenses came after he was moved to the defensive line. In his first two seasons, he worked as an outside linebacker in the Texans’ 3-4 defense. While he notched just six sacks for Houston this season, he was credited with 41 pressures and was a force to be dealt with in run defense.
Even when the Texans defense made a huge mistake in Week 16 and gave up an 86-yard touchdown, Clowney turned heads by running step-for-step with Bengals receiver Brandon LaFell and Houston defensive backs down the entire field.
His effort caught the attention of Texans coach Bill O’Brien:
”The guy to point to especially was Clowney,” O’Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. “He was rushing in on the quarterback and turned around and ran and 90 yards, in his case, to try to chase the guy down. That’s the tone they set in practice, those veteran players. We’re going to rally to the ball 11 guys to the ball. And I think the younger players have taken to it.”
It’ll be on the high-effort defense to lead the Texans to any kind of run in the postseason, and they’ll be a load for the Connor Cook-led Oakland Raiders to deal with.
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