In their first seven games of the NFL season, the Houston Texans defense struggled, especially in the pass game. They had a bye week to reset before taking on the Los Angeles Chargers .
That seemed to help them in Week 9.
With Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert in the game, Houston only allowed 15 points. In fact, Los Angeles did not score a touchdown until the fourth quarter. After suffering a hand injury on the touchdown pass to Quinten Johnston, Herbert was benched for the final two drives, and DJ Uiagalelei.
The Texans’ defense certainly brought their SWARM identity back in this game, sacking Herbert eight times. It was Houston’s first game with eight sacks since their win against the Buffalo Bills in Week 12 of last season.
“The defense definitely
executed much better when it came down to the tackling piece of it. Our guys really tackled well. Having [Jalen] Pitre back was really the highlight for me. It's the plays that he's able to make. It really energizes our entire team, the physicality he plays with him blitzing in off of the edge, making plays in the backfield, just really making it hard on opponents because of his play style and where he's aligning just all over the field,” head coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Our guys covered well too. I thought the corners did a good job of attacking the football. Stingley was able to come down with one pick. Kamari [Lassiter] had a couple third down stops. It's him just attacking the football, playing discipline in coverage. When we play discipline and coverage and we're where we're supposed to be, the defensive line rushed really well because the quarterback had to hold the ball because we played coverage the proper way. All of the defensive things we talked about fundamentally, we didn't change anything, we just executed the proper way.”
Houston’s defense will need to bring that same energy this coming Sunday when they take on the Cleveland Browns. While there are some questions about who the Browns’ quarterback will be after starting Shedeur Sanders last week, Cleveland’s offense is capable of putting up with Sanders or DeShaun Watson as the signal caller.
Kickoff is scheduled for Noon on FOX.
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: DeMeco Ryans breaks down Texans' defensive performance vs Chargers
