Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans is a former Pro Bowl linebacker. He played against quarterbacks named Brady, Brees, Manning, Newton, Rivers and Roethlisberger, so his perspective is different compared to coaches who never played on defense. Apparently, the Texans’ head coach sees more in Jordan Love than Sam Darnold and Josh Allen.
“Going against Jordan Love this week, it will be the best quarterback we’ve seen this year,” Ryans said Monday.
Put a pin in that, because Houston’s 34-7 loss to Darnold in Week 3 and the Texans’ 23-20 win over Allen in Week 5 are ancient history, unless of course the Vikings or Bills await Ryans in the postseason. For now, the focus is on Love, the Packers (4-2) and a Sunday visit to Lambeau Field (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
“And they pose a lot of challenges not only with Love, but the guys he’s getting the ball to,” Ryans added. “Jayden Reed has done a great job of – they do a good job moving him all around whether
he’s getting the ball in the backfield or in the passing game. It’s just an explosive offense.”
That offense hasn’t exploded only with Love, who’s tied for second in the league with 14 touchdown passes despite missing two games. It’s also exploded with Josh Jacobs and a lethal ground attack the Packers have rarely seen since Vince Lombardi was barking at Bart Starr. Green Bay ranks second in the NFL with 167.2 rushing yards per game, trailing only Derrick Henry and the Ravens (205.3).
One way Ryans and the Texans (5-1) can defeat that offense in by not defeating themselves. While the Texas still rank second in the league with 8.5 penalties per game, they’ve cut down on that number over the last two weeks, including a season-low four flags in last week’s 41-21 win at New England. Ryans has preached transparency and accountability.
“Really, we attacked it head on,” he said Monday. “We don’t run from any problems, so we coached it up, attacked it head on, showed the penalties in our team meetings to show where we’ve had issues and just coached them up on how to get it fixed. I think our guys were aware of that, they played just clean, just played a good assignment, played with good execution and technique.
“When you play with the right technique, then you can avoid penalties and some of the penalties are things post-snap where all the stuff pre-snap, post-snap, I think those are penalties that are uncalled for that we can avoid. So, our guys are playing much better in the penalties and we’d like that to get to zero, so we are trending in the right direction in the penalty category.”
Houston is also trending in the right direction on personnel. After running backs Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce returned from injury last week, playing well enough for Houston to trade Cam Akers to Minnesota on Tuesday, they also get help on defense. Defensive end Denico Autry, who had 11½ sacks last year for the Titans and signed with Houston as a free agent, returns this week after a suspension for performance-enhancing substances.
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