HOUSTON – Instead of yielding a lot of yards and touchdowns to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, the Texans’ defense effectively contained the former NFL Most Valuable Player.
A lot of that success, limiting Jackson to 17 of 22 passing for 169 yards with one interception and a pedestrian 79.5 passer rating, is attributable to the combination of pressure and coverage. Jackson was sacked four times and hit seven times.
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And the Texans’ cornerbacks, in particular, had strong games against wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Zay Flowers.
Veteran corner Steven Nelson dove for an interception to undercut a pass intended for rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers.
Second-year corner Derek Stingley Jr. gave up just two receptions for 37 yards against former Pro Bowl wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr, a fellow LSU football alum awarded one questionable pass interference penalty.
And nickel Tavierre Thomas had a 90.5 Pro Football Focus grade as he recorded eight tackles and forced Jackson to fumble with another potential forced fumble disallowed.
“I feel like as a defense we were flying around doing what we needed to do,” Texans corner Derek Stingley Jr. said. “Got to do more, there’s more we can do.There’s more we’re hoping to do on Sunday. I think it was pretty good. There’s stuff we can get better at and we hope to do that going into this game.”
The Texans allowed just 6.0 yards per passing attempt.
The longest completion was a 29-yard throw to Beckham. The most productive wide receiver was Flowers, a first-round draft pick from Boston College who caught nine passes for 78 yards in his first NFL game.
“That was cool going against him,” Stingley said of Beckham.
Overall, it was a good start for the cornerbacks.
“Those guys all did well,” Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said. “Again, not really knowing some matchups we were going to have, where those guys were going to lineup and those sort of things, we couldn’t necessarily prepare them from that point of view. Obviously, ‘Nelly’ having the interception and getting his hands on the ball early after the sudden change was a huge play for us and showed up a bunch.
“I thought ‘T.T.’ got the ball at a couple of times on some of the strips – actually had another one on our sideline that looked like he almost got out, too. From a group, those guys attacking the ball and something that we preach, I thought that was probably the biggest highlight.”
Thomas swiped the football out of Jackson’s hands for a forced fumble.
During another play, Thomas popped Flowers for a tackle for a loss. He finished his first game as the replacement for his friend, Desmond King, who was a surprise cut during the roster cutdown, with a lot of good plays. Thomas allowed three receptions on three targets for nine yards. He had no missed tackles. He played 25 snaps in coverage, 14 snaps in run defense and one pass rush snap.
“Tavierre did a good job for us,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He plays the style of football I love to see. He plays with his hair on fire. He’s fast, he’s physical out there. He did a really good job of forcing fumbles, so that’s what we want to see. T.T. plays the style of ball that I like to see.”
Hours of film study paid off for Nelson on Sunday. Nelson anticipated a crossing route from Flowers on the second defensive series of the game, recognizing a familiarity to what Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken did with his playbook at the University of Georgia.
“Watched a lot of Georgia tape, the play was similar to something we saw a lot, something he liked to do, spread the route,” Nelson said. “I made a break on the ball. That was something we studied.”
Nelson expressed confidence that there are many things from the performance the Texans (0-1) can build on.
“Absolutely, I think we did a lot of good things on defense,” he said. “Offense did some good things as well. It’s a tough team. We just got to watch the film and get better.”
After containing one of the top scramblers in the NFL against the Ravens, the Texans face one of the biggest and most athletic quarterbacks in the league on Sunday against Indianapolis Colts rookie Anthony Richardson. Richardson completed 24 of 37 passes for 233 yards, one touchdown pass, one rushing touchdown and one interception in a season-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Richardson’s 24 completions were short ones, averaging just 3.5 yards downfield. His interception, while trailing 24-21 in the fourth quarter, led to the Jaguars’ final score.
Richardson tends to run outside more than up the middle. He also showed a tendency to throw to his right on the majority of the passes.
“We’re up for the challenge,” Stingley said of Richardson. “We know what he can do. We know what he’s capable of. Lamar was more straightforward with his running, Richardson will go to the side. We need to make sure the edge is set. I know they’re going to do their job up front and we got to do our job in the back.”
The Colts’ staple is run-pass option plays. Richardson will run outside, and that means a lot of tackling for the corners and safeties.
“It’s going to be another challenge this week in terms of it’s just another RPO-based team,” Burke said. “Like we have to be good in the perimeter, like tackling, setting edges at the corner position, at the nickel position because they’re going to try and attack our perimeter that way. So, those guys can hopefully build off the foundation that they laid last week in that sense because it’s going to be something that we call on those guys to do this week.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.