How the Houston Texans got back in the NFL Playoffs

This hasn’t always been a pretty year for the Texans, but they’re back in the playoff anyway.

Houston, we have a playoff team.

Somehow, some way, the Houston Texans are in the playoffs. Despite an uneven offensive performance all season, the Texans are headed back to the postseason after stymying the Miami Dolphins in a 20-12 victory. What’s funny about that performance by the Texans is that Houston’s offense finished with the same EPA per play as the Dolphins, and still won the game!

The Texans did this on the backs of a truly phenomenal defensive performance. In what was sort of a reminder that head coach Demeco Ryans can still coach the hell out of defense, the Texans held Miami to 52 rushing yards, picked off QB Tua Tagovailoa three times and sacked the Dolphins’ signal caller three times as well. Let’s take a look at how they did it, and how it can impact their season going into playoff time.

The Texans are a four-down defense in the same mold as the Jets and 49ers, reliant on instant penetration from the defensive line and fast flowing by the second level. This could be a problem against a Dolphins’ offense that wants to use misdirection to counteract this, but the Texans’ defensive line played out of their minds, and thus allowed the second level to flow fast to the ball. On this zone toss run, DE Denico Autry is able to set a hard edge to keep this run in between the tackles. From there, you get a fast fill from the safety, who fits to the inside of Autry and is able to make the stop as well. LB Christian Harris also detonates on FB Alec Ingold to blow this play up and keep it to a short gain.

I was also very impressed with the Texans’ corners in run support. The Texans played a LOT of Cover 2 on Sunday—the most Cover 2 they’ve played in a single game this season. While Cover 2 is great for bottling up most modern passing games, it asks the cornerbacks to be involved in the run game because they’re in the flat. You pay corners a lot of money to not tackle, but the best ones are able to be a major factor in the run game. Jalen Ramsey was the best tackling CB in the league, and getting corners to play the run unlocks so many things for a defense. The Texans are in Cover 2, and the Dolphins are running Crunch (trap/wham). DE Will Anderson Jr. is to the side of the wham block, but because he knows his help is coming from CB Derek Stingley Jr., who is playing the flat. Anderson slants inside of the right tackle, forcing this run to bounce to Stingley, who makes the play.

In the passing game, it’s a story of Cover 2 and Inverted Cover 2. Teams have played those two-high shells against the Dolphins a lot since McDaniel’s offense begun getting schemed against better, and the Texans leveraged their coverage to shut the water off downfield, while forcing Tagovailoa into mistakes. Their first rep of this came on the first drive, where Tagovailoa was forced to throw a checkdown. The Texans line CB Kamari Lassiter (who played a great game) in the slot and have the linebackers mugged until they drop out. At the snap, they spin to inverted Cover 2, with safety Calen Bullock working to carry anything over the middle of the field. This limits the stress on linebackers in the middle of the field, while changing the picture on the back end. Bullock carries WR Jaylen Waddle over the middle of the field and everything is blanketed, forcing Tua to check it down.

Then, when the Dolphins tried to get aggressive and throw it downfield, the Texans broke them on two consecutive drives, both by Bullock in Inverted Cover 2. Watch how the linebackers are able to close on everything shallow because Bullock is lurking behind them. Tua goes to throw this dig thinking it’ll be open, but Bullock is able to jump it and almost gets a pick.

The next drive, he gets an interception on the exact same concept, inverted Cover 2. Again, the Texans are able to insulate and protect the middle of the field with Bullock as the Tampa player instead of a slower linebacker, and watch as Bullock doesn’t move off his landmark, waiting for this over route to get thrown and jumps it, almost taking this to the house. You can see all their levers getting pulled, and Bullock is the one that helps turn this into a turnover.

The Texans’ defense playing at this level going into the playoffs is a huge plus for this team. As poor as the offense has played, the defense being able to get this level of play is incredible. Their secondary put together a really good performance (Derek Stingley Jr All-Pro, anyone?) and it’s a sign that this young group is playing together well. They answered a lot of their problems defending the middle of the field against the Dolphins, and I’m excited to see how they grow.