Arrowhead Pride
On Sunday Night, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Houston Texans We welcome Scott Barzilla of Battle Red Blog — our sister SBNation site covering the Texans — for Five Questions with the Enemy*.*
The key point of demarcation is 20 points. The Texans have held all but three of their opponents under 20 points, so if they can get to 21 points on offense they have a pretty good chance of winning the game. The key will be getting to quarterback Patrick Mahomes and forcing him to make a couple of mistakes. If Houston can get a short field or two, then they can get to those 21 points and sneak out of Kansas City with a victory.
In short, the Texans make life for opposing quarterbacks very difficult. For the second year in a row, they have led the NFL in opponent completion percentage. They do this with constant pressure and elite corners who can cover receivers one-on-one. The linebackers also do a pretty good job of plugging the holes, making it hard to run the ball. The combination is pretty lethal. The stars of the show are Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter on the edges, as both have already passed 10 sacks on the season. However, their interior defensive line is probably the most improved part of their defense. Most of the players are known to Chiefs fans from last year, so the addition of Sheldon Rankins and Tommy Togiai will be the biggest differences from last year’s defense.
Thank you for saying the offense has been middle-of-the-pack. That is a bit of a confidence boost. In fact, the Houston offense is in the bottom third in almost every meaningful category. This is spilling over into your next question, but the problem has been an identity crisis. Stroud and the passing game is the strength of the offense, but head coach DeMeco Ryans wants to be a smash-mouth football team. That dog won’t hunt, as we like to say in the South. The line hasn’t been terrible — it is a lazy narrative to just pile on the offensive line — but they aren’t the kind of line that moves people. The Texans are awful situationally. They suck in short-yardage situations on third and fourth down — and in the red zone, too. If they could be average in those categories they would likely be an average offense overall — and with their defense, they would win virtually all of their games.
