Quick All-22 Film Review – The Houston Texans

This week the crashing Jets (2-2) welcome the undefeated Texans (4-0) to MetLife stadium the scene of last week’s crime in which the 49ers reportedly stole what confidence and pride the Jets had left.  The Texans aren’t a fluke, they are the real deal.  I reviewed the All-22 film from the Texans last game vs the Tennessee Titans just to give Jets fans a more in-depth look at who the Jets are facing on Sunday with some general observations.

The Jets face their 2nd task in as many weeks when they welcome the 4-0 Houston Texans to MetLife Stadium.

– Andre Johnson is not only an incredible physical talent, but he is also a tremendous route runner. He is open almost every single play vs the Titans, Texans QB Matt Schaub could literally throw to only him the entire game if he wanted. He defeats press coverage easily, he runs all the routes, has incredible speed in and out of his breaks, and doesn’t drop the ball. He is truly a special player but certainly isnt the Texans only weapon.

– The Texans front 7 is not as good as the 49ers, but they are very, very athletic and physical. They blitz just enough to keep the offense off balance, but they usually only bring an extra guy or maybe two at the most (so usually 5 or 6 man blitzes) and they always have a safety deep just in case. They seem to just want to create one-on-one matchups for Watt and Reed, who are both good at getting after the QB. They are not especially complex blitzes, but they do like bringing pressure off the edge as a trail blitz, usually from a CB, while they run an end-tackle stunt in front of the blitz. They don’t blitz up the middle much, if at all, but that’s because they don’t need to. Their front 4 can collapse the pocket by itself.

– JJ Watt, obviously, is a total beast. You cannot run to his side at all, he blows up every single running play as was the case vs the Titans, even if double teamed, he will still knife his way to the ball and/or free up a lane for an LB to get there. His motor is relentless and his effort is off the chart. Watt plays a lot on the left side of the line, so Jets RG Brandon Moore will have his hands full.

– Schaub is very patient, makes great decisions and never predetermines his throws it seems. It seems like such a simple thing, but he just throws to the open receiver. He does a good job anticipating who will be open (Titans play almost exclusively Cover 2 all game though). He gets the ball out quickly if he sees that there will be pressure. He’s athletic and very accurate on the run during play action passes. The Texans run some really nice stretch play action plays where they get the entire defense flowing one way, and then have a TE or WR crossing behind who is usually open. Daniels is very dangerous during this type of play.

– Having watched Shonn Greene for so many games, who is absolutely terrible and should not be a starter, it was such a revelation watching Arian Foster the People and Chris Johnson run the football. They are both outstanding, but Chris Johnson is by far the fastest player I’ve seen on film; this includes Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson, Randall Cobb, Percy Harvin, Meachem, etc. He is at top speed after just one step, he also can decelerate and accelerate in just one step, it’s unreal. His vision is absolutely amazing, he always cuts into the right hole, I’m not sure that you can teach the type of vision that he has. He even fooled me three or four times, where I thought he should have cut one way, but he instead chose another hole and got several more yards. It was awesome watching him.  The Texans struggled with containing Johnson as he ran for 141 yards on 25 carries and average almost 6 yards per carry.  That’s a chink in that Texans armour that the Jets most likely WONT be able to exploit as Shonn Greene is avg 2.8 ypc and I just cant see him getting to the second level that often against this Texans defense.   Foster too has excellent vision, but it’s not close to Johnson’s nor is he as fast. Foster is really, really shifty though, not in a flashy way, but he made the first Titans defender miss several times; there must have been a good 12-15 missed tackles because of Foster’s skill.  The Jets has had problems tackling runners and containing the run so Foster will present the Jets run defense with another legit test this week.

– The Texans led 14-7 at halftime, but their offense bogged down for a while after that. Houston mustered only two first downs in the second quarter, and went three-and-out on the first series of the third quarter… after a pick 6 by Danieal Manning on a HORRIBLE pass by Matt Hasselbeck that was thrown behind his target, the Texans offense sprung to life utilizing a no-huddle VERY effectively and breezed down the field in just over two minutes which consisteed of a 16 yard run by Foster and a 28 yard TD pass from Matt Shaub to Owen Daniels.  It was almost a thing of beauty.  The Jets slow defense will struggle vs the Texans no-huddle offense, it’s almost a certainty.

– In a total contrast from the 49ers, who run right at you, and use the stretch play to keep the defense honest, The Texans seem to tell their RB’s to either get to the edge or cut back into the A or B gaps on running plays; they keep it simple, it’s one or the other. They seem to run almost exclusively stretch plays just out of different formations.  They did this consistently vs the Titans and the Titans seemed unprepared for it.  They will keep the defense honest and run stretch plays back to the weak side of the formation too. I expect the Jets to have a lot of difficulty stopping this.

The left side of the Texans o-line is very good, but the right side is average at best. Caldwell (RG) and Newton (RT) are not impressive. Brown (LT) and Smith (LG) are both very good, Brown is better at pass blocking, Smith is very good at run blocking. The pass blocking by HOU is very solid, I don’t see the Jets being able to generate much pass rush, not that they are able to normally anyway. The Texans don’t have a physicaly offensive line at all, but they are athletic and get out in front of Foster and Tate on those stretch plays and can get to the LBs at the 2nd level.

– The Texans secondary is very strong, they don’t miss tackles, and Joseph and Jackson are both extremely physical with receivers at the line of scrimmage. They play man-to-man nearly every play and were physical at the line with press coverage vs the Titans and it was effective.  Beating press coverage is something the Jets WRs have struggled with mightily these past few weeks and now with Holmes out, it may be another long day for Mark Sanchez.