No One Is Scoring on The Houston Texans Defense

The Houston Texans might have the most dominant defense in the NFL, yet not enough people are talking about it.

The Texans had a rough start to the season, starting 0-3 before going 12-2 the rest of the season, including 10 consecutive victories from week 10 to week 18. As the season progressed, their defense took over, and once it did, Houston became one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL.

Today, we’ll break down what makes the Texans’ defense so special, including their ability to create chaos in the backfield and secondary, dominate in two-high safety coverages, and shut down the run.

Wrecking Havoc

The Houston Texans do a great job of generating negative plays in the backfield and the secondary. In fact, they are one of the best teams in the NFL at forcing takeaways, deflecting passes, and generating tackles for loss.

We're gonna take a look at two of their interceptions from this season to see how they generate big plays in coverage.

On this play vs. the Jaguars, it's 3rd and 10 in the fourth quarter with the Texans facing a 10-3 deficit. The Texans are running cover 3 and sending no blitzers. This is a problem for the Jaguars because they have six blockers, leaving them with four pass catchers going up against six defenders in the secondary.

The Jaguars have an in-route on the left side of the field, with what appears to be a variation of a flood concept on the right side. It's a good play call, but since it's 3rd and 10, the Texans can play deeper in coverage to prevent the Jaguars from hitting the go route or the out route.

Unfortunately, Trevor Lawrence doesn't see that the in route gets open in the middle of the field, and he gets greedy, trying to force the ball to the out route. The Texans are all over the throw and end up getting an interception.

On this next play, the Seahawks are facing a 1st and 17 on their own 38-yard line. The Texans are running a variation of cover 1, and the Seahawks have two slant routes on the left side of the field, with a seam route and a curl-flat route combo on the right side.

The seam route gets open, but the throwing window is smaller than anticipated because Derek Stingley is locked in on the seam. Sam Darnold doesn't put enough loft on the ball, and Stingley intercepts the pass.

Earlier, I mentioned that the Texans also love to wreak havoc in the backfield, so we're gonna take a look at a couple of sacks from their star pass rushers, Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr., who combined for 27 total sacks this year and obliterated opposing offensive lines.

Here it's 2nd and 8, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are looking to pick up the first down. It looks like the Bucs may be chipping Danielle Hunter with a running back, but the running back goes out on a route, leaving the offensive tackle on an island.

Hunter begins by taking a step inside, and the tackle reacts. Once the tackle moves inside, Hunter attacks his outside shoulder, bends around the corner to flatten his path to the quarterback, and sacks the quarterback.

On this play, it's 3rd and 4, and the Rams have the ball on the Texans' 33-yard line. Will Anderson Jr. is on the right side of the field, and he immediately goes into a bull rush. He's able to weaken the tackle's anchor, and once that happens, he gets inside. Although Matthew Stafford tries to get outside the pocket, Anderson brings him down for a sack.

The Houston Texans were incredibly productive on defense this season, ranking in the top 10 in interceptions, passes defended, sacks, and tackles for loss. They were flying all over the field, making big-time plays consistently.

Their pass rush was very unique this season, as they had a sack rate of 8% despite blitzing just 18.4% of the time and generating pressure on just 21% of dropbacks. The Texans have a very good pass rush. They could get to the quarterback by sending just four pass rushers, and they were very efficient with the pressures they generated. When they got to the quarterback, the quarterback was likely going to the turf.

No Fly Zone

The Texans were amazing at defending the pass this year, leading the NFL in EPA/dropback. One reason why they were so successful in coverage is that they were fantastic at executing when running two-high safety coverages, known as middle-of-the-field closed coverage.

On this play, the Buccaneers have the ball in the red zone, facing a 2nd and 9, and the Texans are running cover 2. The Buccaneers have a good play call dialed up as they have the running back running a flat route, the receiver at the top of the screen running an out route, two corner routes, and a seam route. This play design could open up the seam route for a touchdown if the corner routes force the safeties to move outside, leaving the middle of the field open.

Thankfully, one of the linebackers carries the receiver running the seam route, and Baker throws an incompletion.

On the next play, the Colts have the ball on 2nd and 11 and are going under center with three receivers on one side of the formation. The Texans are running either cover 2 or cover 6. I think it's cover 6 based on the way the secondary on the left side of the field plays its zones, but I'm not 100% sure.

The Colts have a little curl route on the far left side of the formation, two deep digs, and a check and release from the tight end. The Texans' linebackers appear to be out of position on this play because it looks like Daniel Jones has open throwing lanes in the middle of the field. I wonder if the timing of the dig routes did not allow him to throw the ball early.

When he does attempt to hit the second dig, the safety is already breaking on the ball because he is reading Jones' eyes. This allows the safety to break up the pass.

As I mentioned earlier, the Texans are amazing when running two-high safety looks, especially when they run cover 2 and cover 2 man.

According to fantasy points, the Texans lead the league in fantasy points allowed per dropback when running cover 2, and they ranked third in this metric when running cover 2 man. This isn't a fantasy football-related breakdown, but this stat is a solid, all-encompassing metric useful for evaluating a team's ability to execute certain coverages.

On top of this, the Texans are unbelievably efficient across the board when defending the pass. They rank in the top 10 in key efficiency metrics such as completion percentage, touchdown rate, interception rate, and passer rating.

Stopping the Run

On top of having an outstanding pass defense, the Texans also have a phenomenal run defense. Linebacker Azeez Al Shaair and edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. were two of the team's highest graded run defenders according to PFF, and we're going to break down two of their run plays from this season to see how these guys helped anchor one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

On this play, the Broncos have a 1st-and-10 near the end of the first quarter, and they are under center. After the snap, the left guard goes up to the second level, the right guard blocks the defensive tackle in the a-gap, the center pulls to take on Azeez Al Shaair in the second level, but the tight end fails to engage with his blocking assignment, so the center can't get to the second level.

Al Shaair takes advantage of this, plugging the open running lane and tackling the running back for no gain.

On this next play, the Ravens are in the red zone, and right after the snap, it looks like they might be running some kind of counter. The left tackle and center double-team the defensive tackle in the B-gap, the left guard pulls to take on a linebacker, the right guard takes on the nose tackle, the right tackle is blocking the defensive tackle in the B-gap, and the tight end is blocking Will Anderson Jr.

It looks like the Ravens have created a hole for Derrick Henry to run through, but Will Anderson disengages with the tight end immediately, and this allows him to blow up this run play and bring Henry down for a loss of yards.

The Texans' run defense was spectacular this season, ranking in the top ten in EPA/rush and rushing success rate.

One reason why they were so good against the run is that they got into the backfield quickly and consistently. This is shown by the fact that they produce so many tackles for loss and allow opponents to average just 1.01 yards before contact per rush attempt.

Can this Defense Lead the Texans to the Promised Land?

When you put it all together, it’s hard to argue against the Houston Texans having one of the most complete defenses in the NFL. They can generate big plays all over the place, they can get sacks without blitzing, they excel at covering with two high safety looks, and they shut down the run consistently.

That combination is rare, and it’s why Houston went from an afterthought early in the season to one of the most dangerous teams in football down the stretch.

I do have a lot of concerns about the Texans' offense, though. Their offensive production was concerning this season, and this likely holds them back from making a Super Bowl run. Still, I like what the Texans have put together on defense, and I believe this unit could carry them to the AFC championship. That's how high I am on this team.