The Houston Texans defense was inspiring confidence through the first two games of preseason.
Houston’s new Tampa 2 scheme generated seven takeaways, even though it may have been in exhibition games against second- and third-team offenses. Nevertheless, it was a confidence boost.
How would the Texans fare against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Starter Tom Brady carved them up, going 11-of-14 for 154 yards and a touchdown. The Texans’ pass rush didn’t even touch him.
While that may be arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time, the Bucs’ rookie signal caller, Kyle Trask, also had similar success with 12-of-14 for 146 yards and a touchdown. Houston did take him down twice for a cumulative loss of 15 yards.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will be debuting a rookie quarterback of their own in Trevor Lawrence, who the Texans will face Sunday, Sept. 12 for Week 1 of the 2021 season at NRG Stadium. Lawrence similarly diced the Dallas Cowboys’ defense, completing 11 passes on 12 attempts for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Coach David Culley recognizes the Texans had some issues against the Buccaneers, but believes they can get them corrected in time for Jacksonville.
“We had some alignment issues with that and we had some guys who weren’t really in the right place at the right time and some miscommunication and I think that had something to do with that also but we corrected those and we know if we get in the right position, we line up right, those type of things don’t happen and we will get guys off the field,” Culley said. “We felt on those two drives, on one of those drives we could have prevented that if we did the things we are supposed to do.”
The Texans will need to get them fixed fast, or else the rest of the NFL will try to duplicate what Brady and Trask did to Houston’s new-look defense.
