Houston @ New England -- Lets talk it through

Rambling thoughts


-The elephant in the room Jacoby Brissett. Really had trouble vs back side blitz vs Miami. Rest of the time he looked fine.

-Houston relies more on the edge rushers and up the middle blitz from LBs then backside blitzing

-Houstons D had trouble vs Chicago AND KC with their short passing game and the Houston DLine is bad at run tackling. Watt and Clowney both get too far into the backfield (looking for sacks) and while Wilfork takes up a ton of room, the guy isn't agile enough to stop a RB from reaching the hole if its not directly at him. Cushing used to clean that up for them, but he's out. Houston better against QBs who hold the ball and look deep.

-Conversely New Englands entire offense is quick hitting underneath stuff and we all can probably agree we'll see a fair amount of Blount tonight, who is already tough to tackle, and should exploit Houstons weakness with run tackling.

-Houstons offense has been underwhelming, really a lot of average stuff, and on top of it they've gotten deep one on one catches down the sidelines from Hopkins and Fuller to bail them out. Take those plays away and Houston really hasn't done much so far this season. All else is failing, throw a deep jump ball to Hopkins or Fuller outside the numbers. That's been their gameplan this year. 

-Osweiler has a great deep ball. Really gets a nice loft on it with good velocity, and it drops right down to the WRs. However he has no touch with the underneath stuff. 5 yard outs are tough for him. Slants usually are not thrown where the WR can continue running. Osweiler throws everything like its a fastball, leaving the 5-15 yard routes to be a dicey proposition.

-New England is really good against the deep sideline routes. Their safeties (McCourtney,Harmon, Chung) are very good at keeping a top on WR routes and they have the speed to get sideline to sideline. Usually when you throw deep to the sidelines vs NE you have to drop it over the DB but infront of the safety, rarely is it an easy jumpball (like Houston has feasted on so far). You can pass on NE with short stuff and deep middle stuff in front of the safeties. Osweiler hasn't been very good at either.

-Osweiler is very good at burning blitzes if you can't land. He stands tall, and finds and exploits one on ones. Hes pretty good in the pocket, but you can rattle him coming up the middle on a blitz where he doesn't have anywhere to step up into. Not crazy mobile.

-I believe this is Osweilers 4th road game as a starter, and 1st in prime time. Also Houstons first road game, and on a short week, after an emotional win over KC (revenge).

-Houstons kicker can't reach the endzone on kick offs, if you believe in NEs special teams, that semi important. NE will choose to short kick, but with more loft and hangtime.

-Gronk is back, but has never caught passes from Brissett, even in practice (until yesterday)

-My personal feeling is this is a bad spot and matchup for Houston BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT Jacoby Brissett. That's the real question here. As the MIami game went on, Brissett did look better, and he has good feet, able to get away from trouble, however did not do great stepping up in the pocket, would rather run out the side. Houston has Clowney and Watt rushing deep edges, preventing that and creating the pocket. Brissett will be throwing short and handing off to Blount all day (both Houston weaknesses), but do you trust him on 3rd and mid? Will he turn the ball over on a strip sack? That's what you're betting on if you ask me. 

Give me your thoughts and lets figure this game out.