DeMeco Ryans Revelas Texans Keys To 'Tighter' Third-Down Defense
The Houston Texans were torched on third down by the Dolphins on Saturday, which extended each of their four touchdown drives in the 28-3 Miami win.
Miami converted nine of its 15 third-down attempts and both of their fourth-down plays, which will not win football games come the regular season.
There's a strong correlation between third-down conversion rates and team success, and Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans summed up the two things that need to be improved on third downs - pass rush and coverage on receivers.
"We have to make it challenging and make the offense make a tough throw, tough catch to put them put them on their heels a bit, and we didn't do that," Ryans said. "The coverage wasn't tight enough. The rush wasn't good enough, and if we want to play you know great on third down and get off the field, we have to be tighter on both ends."
It really started on the second drive for the Dolphins. They were backed up as deep as their 2-yard line and converted a third-and-8 from their own 9, as well as two third-and-3s on their eventual touchdown drive.
Not that any third-down conversion is more gutting for a defense than another, but there were two that stood out.
Early in the second quarter, Miami was on its own 16-yard line facing a third-and-14. The Dolphins handed off to running back De'Von Achane, who knifed through the defense for a gain of 20 to move the chains.
The second was on the Dolphins' next drive which started on their own 18-yard line. After a 65-yard run from Salvon Ahmed set up Miami in the red zone, Skylar Thompson dropped back on third-and-11, sat in the pocket for about three seconds on the three-man Texans rush, and delivered an 18-yard touchdown pass to Braxton Berrios, which put the game out of reach with 10 seconds to go in the first half.
Houston got limited push at the line of scrimmage, forcing its secondary to have to cover for longer which becomes increasingly more difficult — especially for rookie linebacker Henry To'oTo'o who was guarding Berrios.
While it doesn't matter necessarily against the backups in the preseason, it will obviously matter in the regular season. The Dolphins were 24th in the NFL at converting third downs at 36.2 percent, whereas seven of the Texans' opponents this season were above at least 40 percent.
Houston's got to clean up the rush and coverage prior to week 1 or else it will be a long season — especially for the defense.
You can follow Casey Smith on Twitter @casey_smith2419
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