Re: How did the Texans fixed their defense overnight?
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.
I just wanted to quote this as part of my answer.
so, the underlying point of this thread being that our defense is as horrible as the texans once was, and the op would like to know if we can do whatever they did to 'fix' it.
I don't want to get hung up on some small sample size stats, but I'll check a few things just to establish a factual foundation.
over 18 games the texans gave up about 17 ppg, which is about 10 ppg better than the previous year's 27.
the pats' defense has evolved throughout the year, but averaged over the season they allowed 20 ppg ---- 3 points more than houston, while playing different teams.
they gave up 20 to baltimore in the playoffs, which is exactly what houston allowed.
they gave up 19 points in the superbowl, 6 of which was that last intentional td.
they allowed 17 to the rams in 2002.
they allowed 29 to the panthers in 2004.
they allowed 21 to the eagles in 2005.
anyway, to answer your question,
1 - one thing houston possibly did was addition through subtraction.
I don't watch houston, and have no clue about the ability of the previous coach, but if you get rid of matt millen, or whoever, your team will improve just on that alone.
not to slander the prior staff, but I point it out because I don't think that would translate to our team as we already have good coaches.
2 - new coach
they brought in wade phillips and switched to a 3-4.
wade phillips knows defense, but plays a different 3-4 than the pats, and was run out of dallas.
I suppose we could adopt his philosophy, but we can't switch to a 3-4 as we already play that.
this is also what green bay did to create that tough defense last year, but how did that work for them this year?
3 - the draft
mario williams -- you might remember them getting excoriated by media and fans a few years back by taking him with the first pick in the draft.
brooks reed - rookie who got his chance when mario got hurt
jj watt - rookie taken with 11th pick
brian cushing - taken a couple years ago with the 15th pick
kareem jackson - corner taken 20th last year
four of those guys were picked higher than the pats normally reach, so this is great to get us richard seymour years ago, but that path has closed outside of packaging 4 picks to move up.
4 - other personnel moves
glover quin - I believe he played corner for their horrible secondary a year ago, but was moved to safety.
d manning - they signed a free safety off the bears (4 yrs / 20m)
j joseph - signed an excellent corner off cincy (five-year, $48.75 million contract. The deal contains $23.5 million guaranteed, including a $12.5 million signing bonus.)
fa and trades are always an avenue to be explored, so I guess we could've signed asomugha, and traded for samuel, or whatever, ......waitaminute......
the bottom line is our defense could certainly use some work, but isn't the trainwreck people make it out to be, and isn't any scapegoat for the superbowl.
I'm sure belichick will do the best he can in fa and the draft this year to improve it, and they are already loaded with young guys who could improve, so don't panic, and have faith.
