How did the Texans fix their defense overnight?

oldskool138 said:

Maroney - Not on the team (or in the NFL)
Merriwether - Not on the team and barely plays on the team he's on now
Chung - solid but not spectacular
Mayo - see Chung, Patrick
Solder - pretty good but the jury's still out (still didn't fill a huge area of need)

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The 2 superbowl loses were caused by defenses that were fundamentally built wrong with the same mentality

2007 bend but don't break with an aged core defense
2011 bend but don't break with a nonathletic defense with no real play makers.

The defense sucking is bills fault and the nfl rules

If Bill was their HC and DC they'd have probably turned that talent around a whole lot sooner...

They spent years fruitlessly collecting talent and failing to accomplish anything despite being media breakour talent darlings. Their HC was on the hot seat again last season and he talked Wade Phillips, who is an equally lousy HC but a pretty good DC, into coming in to save his ass. That's all.

We could go that route if you want to suck for several seasons under a crappy HC and then bring Bill back to save the day on defense. He can do a lot more with a lot less, so if he had the talent Wade is working with that would probably result in a Super Bowl, even with a backup QB.

It's very difficult to draft quality players at the end of the draft.....but still ...the texans drafted alot of front 7 players ...and I think the fact that wade the budha phillips came into a situation with a young defensive front 7 and just let the dogs lose...against everyone and this is withoug Super Mario. BTW Mario willilams might be a free agent next year ....as he is going to cost a boatload...to keep.....

The Texans defense was always good. There is talent all over the place but the clear difference between this years Texans defense and last years is Jonathan Joseph and Daniael Manning back in the secondary. Wade Phillips is a close 2nd.

The Pats need a DC.

Houston never fixed their defense. All they did was make it better at shutting down bad teams, thus padding their overall stats. They held 19 teams to 14 or fewer points, but that doesn't really matter when the Saints are still dropping 40 on you.

Fact: The Texans defense allowed opposing offenses to score 40, 29, and 28 points. The Patriots defense never allowed an opposing offense to score more than 27.

patsfan2007 said:

The Pats need a DC.

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They have one. His name is Matt Patricia. His name tag just says safeties coach on it instead. Belichick isn't doing anything differently than if the Pats had someone with the title of defensive coordinator.

VrabelJr said:

The Texans defense was always good. There is talent all over the place but the clear difference between this years Texans defense and last years is Jonathan Joseph and Daniael Manning back in the secondary. Wade Phillips is a close 2nd.

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BS. The clear difference between last year and this year was their pass rush, which now is as good as any in the league. That pass rush harasses the QB every single play, much like the Giants but even better. Because of that pass rush, very often the QB has to get rid of the ball very quickly, when his receivers could not get any separation, and that makes the secondary look very good.
That pass rush virtually shutdown the Ravens in the second half, allowing only 3 points. If they had Schaub instead of a rookie QB, very probably they would had won vs the Ravens.

The Texans personnel on D is more talented than the Patriots personnel on D. I am hopeful that this is remedied in 2012.

patsderoer said:

BS. The clear difference between last year and this year was their pass rush, which now is as good as any in the league. That pass rush harasses the QB every single play, much like the Giants but even better. Because of that pass rush, very often the QB has to get rid of the ball very quickly, when his receivers could not get any separation, and that makes the secondary look very good.
That pass rush virtually shutdown the Ravens in the second half, allowing only 3 points. If they had Schaub instead of a rookie QB, very probably they would had won vs the Ravens.

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With the exception of JJ Watt and Brooks Reed (who is a downgrade from Mario Williams) the Texans front 7 is exactly the same. You have much to learn about Football still.

Two words: Brian Cushing


Well actually several very talented young players and some great free agent acquistions. Our defense is young guys, lets remember that technically we are still rebuilding. Besides Brady and Wilfork, most of the better players on our team are very young.

oldskool138 said:

Having a solid drafting philosophy besides "value"? Not trading down and out of the draft? Not always looking for the perfect player who can play defense and special teams?

Am I close?

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Well, if Belichick consistently had top ten draft picks, he might change his strategy too. It is one thing to trade down when you have a pick in the high 20s when most experts believe the legitimate first round talent dissipates after the top 15 than to take a stud pass rusher with the first overall pick in a draft where the hottest player is a RB and no one wants to trade up to draft a RB with the first pick.

BTW, the Texans have been very hit or miss with their first round picks. Yes, they hit with Williams, Watts, and Cushing, but Amobi Okoye(10th overall pick in 2007 was a disappointment and already on his second team), Travis Johnson (16th overall in 2005 who didn't play in 2011 and was on his second team by 2009), and Kareem Jackson (20th overall in 2010 and just a mediocre CB) have been mediocre to bad picks. And the Texans didn't trade down for value for them.

So what the Pats need to do is tank the next few years so they can draft in the top 10. Then they can build a great defense.

Bottom line is they drafted well but they also sucked and underachieved for quite awhile. I've always liked the way they drafted and I'm sure BB could the do same if not better if he was a dumbass coach and our QB was Mark Sanchez. Fortunately our worst season was 9-7 in the last 10 years which would be the Texans 2nd best season in that span. They pick at better spots every year.

It wasn't until the Texans brought in a defensive coordinator that knew anything about coaching defense that they started putting it all together. They will be tough but hard times are ahead for that franchise. They will be in salary cap hell soon enough and it starts with Mario Williams and Arian Foster this year and then after that they will have Schaub, Barwin and Cushing to think about the year after.

Again I think a lot of reason why we are so enamored with Houston is because they draft a lot of players that fans here would love to see in a Pats uniform but would never have to the chance to due to our success as an organization. Let's see how they do this year picking 25th+?

VrabelJr said:

With the exception of JJ Watt and Brooks Reed (who is a downgrade from Mario Williams) the Texans front 7 is exactly the same. You have much to learn about Football still.

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JJ Watt makes all the difference. The pressure he creates helps the other pass rushers as well.

Brooks Reed a downgrade? LoL. They played better in defence without Williams and his 1 or 2 tackles a game.
Brooks Reed had vs Ravens in playoffs 2.5 sacks, 1 FF and 8 tackles(2 assisted), better line by far than Mario Wiliams put in any of his games this season.

vuudu said:

The reason I say overnight was because of how they finished the season before this, they were dead last in passing yds on defense. They gave up so many big plays after big plays and then, with a shorten off season work, they became so good.

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First, they changed to a 3-4 defense. Second, they had already added quite a few players. Not just Joseph, but Daniel Manning as well.

And the 3-4 was not new to many of that defense as that is what they had played 2 years prior.

oldskool138 said:

Maroney - Not on the team (or in the NFL)
Merriwether - Not on the team and barely plays on the team he's on now
Chung - solid but not spectacular
Mayo - see Chung, Patrick
Solder - pretty good but the jury's still out (still didn't fill a huge area of need)

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Dude - you seriously are whacked.

Solder didn't fill a huge area of need? Who was the starting LT going into the draft? That's right. We didn't have one because Matt Light was unsigned and had stated, vehemently, that he was going to test free agency.

Mayo is only solid? Again, you evaluations are whacked.

Patrick Chung made some big strides this year in his pass coverage abilities. He gets sole credit for shutting down Antonio Gates and for limiting Jason Witten.

Meriweather - Gave them 4 above average years, 2 of which he was a pretty good starter.

Maroney - 4 solid, but not spectacular years. In the end, didn't get the philosophy.

Seriously, you need to stop with the pseudo-evaluations because you're horrible at them.

Re: How did the Texans fixed their defense overnight?

patsderoer said:

JJ Watt makes all the difference. The pressure he creates helps the other pass rushers as well.

Brooks Reed a downgrade? LoL. They played better in defence without Williams and his 1 or 2 tackles a game.
Brooks Reed had vs Ravens in playoffs 2.5 sacks, 1 FF and 8 tackles(2 assisted), better line by far than Mario Wiliams put in any of his games this season.

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JJ Watt was the 11th overall pick though. The Pats are constantly drafting in the mid to high 20s. They usually just can't get players who go that high. Well, unless they trade down for value like they did to get the pick in the next year's draft like they did to get Mayo.

Too bad for the Pats the draft wasn't nearly as top heavy with defensive talent that year. You look at that year and all the defensive players taken ahead of Mayo were disappointments or outright busts (Chris Long, Glen Dorsey, Vernon Gholston, Sederick Ellis, and Keith Rivers). In fact, I don't think there was one other very good to great defensive player taken in the first round that year other than Mayo.

I'm not unhappy with the Mayo pick, but if the Pats had the seventh pick this year they could have had JJ Watt or Aldon Smith or Ryan Kerrigan (although Kerrigan's production dropped off after a fast start). That just shows you what kind a crap shoot the draft is even at the top. This year, Aldon Smith goes 7th overall, the year the Pats had a top 10 draft pick Vernon Gholston went 6th overall.

vuudu said:

I am really curious to know how the Texans were able to fix their defense so quickly.

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Someone had to say it

oldskool138 said:

Maroney - Not on the team (or in the NFL)
Merriwether - Not on the team and barely plays on the team he's on now
Chung - solid but not spectacular
Mayo - see Chung, Patrick
Solder - pretty good but the jury's still out (still didn't fill a huge area of need)

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Mayo is far better than just "solid, but not spectacular". Also, in my last post I pointed out he was the only great and consistent defensive player taken in the first round of 2008.

Solder did fill a huge need because we did not know if Light would come back and if there was an offseason, the Pats may not have wanted Light back. OT was a significant need.

DaBruinz said:

Patrick Chung made some big strides this year in his pass coverage abilities. He gets sole credit for shutting down Antonio Gates and for limiting Jason Witten.

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Yeah, people keep saying Chung can't cover, but he has been far better than people give him credit for.