New York Giants Week 10: First Look at Houston Texans' Defense

Two weeks ago, the New York Giants picked up their second loss of the season against the Seattle Seahawks. That was followed by a bye, which allowed them to heal and plan for the second half of the season. This is the first time Brian Daboll has been a head coach, so it’s going to be interesting for Giants fans to see how he has the Giants ready to go following the week off.

This week the Giants will face a Houston Texans team that owns the worst record in the NFL. (1-6-1), and is jockeying for the No. 1 overall pick in next year's draft. This team has a lot of needs, which is an article for another time and on another site, but for now, let's take a look at the Texans' defense.

Personnel

The Texans are clearly in a rebuilding period right now and are in the early stages of it. This Texans roster is made up of young players having to play a much bigger role than they should be expected to play early right now and veterans who weren’t big-time contributors that are now being asked to be that.

Up front, Jerry Hughes has been the best and most consistent pass rusher on this defensive line. Hughes spent the majority of his career with the Buffalo Bills before this season, and now he’s been given the opportunity to be the premier pass rusher for a team.

Among qualifying edge defenders in 2022, Hughes has the 22nd-highest pass-rush win rate, winning 18.5 percent of his pass-rush opportunities. As a run defender, Hughes leaves a lot to be desired and will likely struggle if he gets lined up against Saquon Barkley.

Lining up on the end opposite of Hughes is Rasheem Green, another one of those players who was a rotational guy at his previous spot but is now thrust into a starting position. Green is second on the team in both pressures and sacks.

Green is much more reliable as a run defender than Hughes and has 11 stops for a gain of three or fewer and just a missed tackle percentage of 10.5 percent.

At the second level, the Texans primarily used the duo of Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill up until recently, when Grugier-Hill asked for his release. In Grugier-Hill’s place has been rookie Christian Harris, who’s struggled with the speed in the NFL.

Kirksey is a well-traveled veteran, on his third team in four seasons, but has been the MIKE linebacker in this Lovie Smith defense that’s arguably the most physically and mentally demanding position (more on that in the next segment).

Kirksey is amidst one of his better seasons in recent years, where he’s been used more versatility than he previously was. As a pass rusher, Kirksey is on pace for the third-most pass-rush attempts of his career.

Rookie Christian Harris has been thrust into action way earlier than anyone likely expected. Coming out of Alabama this past season, Harris was my third-ranked linebacker because of his ceiling, but his floor is low.

Harris is a long athlete that can play sideline-to-sideline as a chasing player, but his football IQ is lacking, and his eyes in coverage are wildly inconsistent. He will adapt or be a target for quarterbacks and offensive coordinators.

The secondary is the most promising position group on the Texans, with two rookie starters in Derek Stingley Jr and Jalen Pitre, the third and thirty-seventh overall picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Stingley has been one of the starting outside corners, with Steven Nelson working on the opposite side of him and Desmond King II as the nickel defender, where he’s quietly been one of the best nickel defenders in the NFL for most of his career.

While those names might not be the biggest names to casual NFL fans, this unit’s been performing relatively well, especially for a defense emphasizing their safeties and linebackers in coverage.

Jonathan Owens has been the more reliable cover safety on the team, which isn’t surprising considering Pitre is getting up to speed in the NFL. Owens has been consistent this season outside his last game against the Eagles, who attacked him.

Scheme

The Texans are one of those teams with a scheme that won’t change much, regardless of the roster. Currently, they don’t have the players on the roster that maximize this scheme, and the scheme is only good enough to elevate the players who fit in. Lovie Smith is known for his Tampa 2 defense that operates out of a 4-3 front, and that hasn’t changed.

The Tampa 2 is a difficult defense to operate without the right personnel. This is a stark difference compared to most of the defenses that the Giants have faced this year in terms of aggressiveness.

The Texans don’t blitz very often; when they do, they don’t disguise it. Regardless of who the additional rusher is, they usually step up near the line of scrimmage and show that they will be rushing.

Tampa 2 is a mix between Cover-2 and Cover-3, where the cornerbacks press their receivers at the line of scrimmage before dropping back into their shallow zones. The outside linebackers or nickel defenders drop into shallow zones outside the hash marks.

The MIKE linebacker and safeties are where this defense gets a bit weird. The difference between Cover-2 and Tampa 2 is that the MIKE linebacker drops deep to play the deep third like a deep safety would in Cover-3.

The safeties playing their deep “halves” then get to focus a little more on their zones instead of having to cover half of the field, allowing them to push vertical routes on the outside further toward the sideline and squeeze them.

With a blitz being rare in Tampa 2, the defensive line has the assignment to generate pressure by rushing just four players. That is especially where the Texans fall short.

While Jerry Hughes has been solid and Rasheem Green has played above expectations, the line isn’t nearly consistent enough in creating pressure. It’s also evident that there’s still a level of not being comfortable consistently operating in this scheme on the back end.

What This Means for the Giants

The Texans are lacking in top talent this season--there’s no way around that, and one thing this team has done consistently is get gashed against the run. Against mobile quarterbacks, the Texans have done a great job of containing the quarterback to the pocket--a benefit of playing zone coverage almost exclusively.

However, in those games, against the Titans (starting Malik Willis), Eagles, and Bears, the running backs found success consistently on the ground. The Texans have allowed over 100 rushing yards in every game this season except for one (Chargers) and over 4.5 yards per carry in every game except for, again, against the Chargers.

An important part of this game for Giants quarterback Daniel Jones will be patience as a passer. Jones has done a good job navigating the pocket and reading defenses this season, and he must continue that trend this week.

The Texans defense doesn’t do a good job of generating pressure, and with zone coverage set up, there won’t be many scrambling opportunities for Jones with eyes on him in the backfield. Routes will eventually open up; if they don’t, Jones will have to either check the ball down or throw it away.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the worst defenses that the Giants will face this season, but it’s also very unfamiliar to have to face a defense that is so schematically simple. The Giants have to be able to play smart, efficient football against a defense that isn’t likely to give up big plays deep down the field.

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