Half Way Point Report Card
 

Let's get conversation going.

Defense

JJ Watt has been fantastic. I am not sure if I'm more impressed by his maniacal work ethic, singular football focus, or seeming gravitational pull on the football this year. Either way I cannot imagine a better player or a player who is more fun to root for. He does everything right while doing it all the right way. Mike Tomlin even described Antonio Brown's amazing play as 'Watt-like' this week. JJ has now become an adjective used by competitors to describe football excellence.

Crick has been solid as a Ninja replacement. He doesn't make as many plays in the passing game but he also doesn't jump offsides once a game and pick up a personal foul every other week. I would be very happy with him starting across from JJ for years.

The NT rotation has been unremarkable. They have not appeared to be a huge issue, but they also don't really make plays. And with the amount of upfield gambling JJ does, they need to be able to win battles in the middle of the field or we get gashed by patient running teams (like against NYG).

Cushing is possibly done. At the very least it has reached the point where I would be shocked if he plays like 2012 Cushing again. Very depressing.

Tuggle/Mohammed/random MLB have all been better than what we've had at this position in recent years. Our LBs are obviously being coached.

Mercilous looks like a player the last 3 weeks. I would not have believed it 4 weeks ago. He may be an option opposite Clowney going forward.

Clowney has been a zero at this point. Hopefully this first half season is a distant memory that nobody cares about when he puts up 30 combined sacks in 2015-2016.

Brooks Reed should be a rotation guy. He just isn't talented enough to be anything else at a position that is all about pass rush. If he is a low pick or a cheap vet FA playing run downs you are happy to have him. If he is a 2nd round pick he's a bit of a lost cause.

Anybody want to weigh in on the secondary/ST/Offense, or any of these guys?

Jerrell Powe was on 610 a couple days ago and made a very interesting comment. Apparently, when he was on the Chiefs last year, every Friday the defensive line would watch cut ups of their upcoming opponents and then watch clips of J.J. Watt. You're pretty damn good when another team is showing clips of you literally every week as an example of how its done. I've never even heard of something like this before.

I'm going to disagree with this, mainly due to the post Pickett rotation. I think they've done fairly since that aquisition. Saw a tweet or a post somewhere this morning that the yards/game has dropped by 50 since he came aboard. That's improvement. Plus that big ole dude is tying up guys so JJ, Crick, etc, can make plays. NT's don't show up in stats, but that doesn't mean they aren't doing what they are supposed to do. Not saying he's the end all be all of fat guys, but he's the best we've ever had.

I will keep an eye out for that. What you are describing is exactly what we need. Somebody to eat blockers and let JJ gamble. Hopefully we've found our guy.

Pat Starr wrote an article about this last week. Wasn't quite 50/game then, but pretty close. This was pre-Titans too, so it probably went up a bit more.

http://hou.scout.com/story/1472578-r...at-sheet?s=116

Excerpt:
How important has Pickett been to the Texans defense? Take a look.

Pre-Pickett (3 Games)

Opponents rushed for 141.6 yards a game on 27 rushes per game, averaging 5.3 yards a carry.

Pickett as the Starter (4 Games)

Opponets are rushing for 101.3 yards a game on 29 rushes per game, averaging 3.5 yards a carry.

Indeed. That gash up the middle has stopped the past few weeks. Pickett's job is to be a big fat guy that can't be moved off his spot and ties up blockers which gives Watt and friends more chances to get at the ball carrier. And I've seen that big guy get down to the sideline in pursuit a few times. Romeo knows what he wants in personnel. Let him work his magic.

The back seven still scare me even though their play has improved a lot this year. I still expect to hear "Holding - DEE-fense - Number 25" out of the officials 2-3 times a game but it isn't happening as much.

I'll save my comments for the other parts of the roster for when others jump in.