Official Texans vs. Broncos Fake Game Thread - 8/22/2015

[Arky]

31 observations from Texans vs. Broncos

John Harris
Texans Analyst

It wasn’t the prettiest night for the Texans on a number of different levels, but we’ll trudge on to the next one.

Here are my observations from Saturday night’s loss to the Broncos.

1. The Broncos’ first offensive play was a smoke screen to Demaryius Thomas and CB Kareem Jackson made a textbook tackle on him for little to no gain. But, the one thing that stood out was that the Broncos were in an empty formation and QB Peyton Manning was in the gun. He actually made a run, play action fake before he threw the ball, again with no back in the backfield. Defenders will freeze for a split second out of instinct but it worked against Peyton as it gave Jackson the extra time to attack Thomas for no gain.

2. Rookie corner Kevin Johnson took the challenge of Demaryius Thomas head on and it wasn’t as if Peyton Manning shied away from it. Johnson knocked down the first throw to Thomas, gave up a completion on the second and then was in Thomas’ hip pocket on an incompletion on the third. Other than the one completion and a questionable holding call, Johnson played very well in his second outing as a Texan.

3. The Texans ran power a few times on the first drive and it didn’t look all that bad for the most part. The first time Alfred Blue powered through LB Brandon Marshall for a significant gain. On the second one, he had a massive hole about to emerge but the kick out block missed Broncos OLB Von Miller as LG Jeff Adams had eyes, wrapping around, for the linebacker. That play could’ve popped if Miller had been just nudged out of the way.

4. I noted last night on the broadcast and perhaps last week in my game observations, the loss of Arian Foster truly shows up in the outside zone running game. Not that he can always gets the edge, it’s the cutback or cut up runs back behind the center where Foster flourishes. The outside zone on the first offensive drive went for a loss that put this offense behind schedule.

5. Last week, QB Ryan Mallett got called for a penalty, inducing the defense with his head movement, but last night, he stole five yards on third down with the hard count on the first drive. As he said in the San Francisco game, captured on Hard Knocks, “Hey, I learned that ---- watching Brady.” I guess he learned that one too.

6. There’s a logjam at cornerback, we know that, but Charles James II used last night’s opportunity on special teams to make a statement that he doesn’t want a new zip code at the end of pre-season. He made two brilliant special teams plays, making a sound open field tackle on the punt and then downing the ball inside the five later in the first half. He’s quickly become a team favorite, a fan favorite and a coaching staff favorite too.

7. The return of Gary Kubiak to Denver meant a return to the outside zone run game and, in particular, cut blocks on the backside. The Texans defensive line and outside linebackers took on those blocks all game long and struggled a bit against it. However, DE Jared Crick got cut down on one play and as he was on his wallet made a tackle for no gain.

8. Whitney Mercilus typically wins with his pass rush up the field, but a great sign was pressure he put on Peyton Manning beating rookie tackle Ty Sambrailo inside with a strong rip with his outside arm. A few more snaps for Mercilus in that game and he’d have ended up beating Sambrailo for certain.

9. Then, on the very next snap, a three step throw, Mercilus beat Sambrailo with a quick inside move, leaving the rookie OT holding on for dear life. Stressing the holding on part. Manning got rid of the ball just in the nick of time.

10. If there’s a rookie standing out more and more each week, it’s the former Rice defensive tackle Christian Covington. He continues to get more and more reps with the first group in sub-package stuff and even was on the field in the first quarter in base over the nose. He’s a tasmanian devil chasing the ball all over the yard and even on the play he was high/lowed, he still helped on the tackle.

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