Houston Texans: How Zach Cunningham continues to be brilliant

The Houston Texans are still smarting over their 29-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars this past Sunday but despite all of that, there continues to be a bright spot shining on defense.

You’re probably guessing I’m talking about the Houston Texans’ J.J. Watt but no, there’s another guy that’s getting the job on defense in the limited amount of action that he’s getting. I’m talking about linebacker Zach Cunningham, who is our 2nd round pick from this season and has been hitting the ground at close to breakneck pace.

You certainly remember Sunday’s game. It was bad on both sides of the football with no consistency on offense, poor quarterback play, sub-par offensive line production and a defense that certainly looked out of place with a new coordinator at the helm. But despite all of that, Cunningham continued to shine.

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His lanky, but semi-muscular frame allows him to be deft enough to stay with his assignments but I noticed that in the preseason that he had trouble defending the quicker backs, blowing right by him. He’ll work this out as he continues to hone his craft and hopefully gaining weight to hold his own on the line but I do like what I’m seeing so far.

Pro Football Focus released their grades earlier this week and Cunningham received the highest grade out of all of the Houston Texans players for this past Sunday which is certainly an honorable distinction. I personally was inclined to give the game ball to Marcus Gilchrist with the way he was able to cover whatever was in front of him with ease and being a focal point of our last line of defense.

But Cunningham received a stellar grade of an 82.1 after recording four assisted tackles this past Sunday. PFF mentioned that he only participated in 28 out of a total of 64 possible snaps on defense and was able to amass three solo run stops with a run stop of 18.8 percent. On the other hand, he only saw action in three of those 28 snaps that involved the pass rush. We know that this is something he has to work on and those duties will delegated to him over time.

These are all important steps to his eventual rise to prominence at the linebacker position for the team. He’ll be here three more seasons and I’m sure the Cunningham we see in the future will overwhelmingly rival the one we’re seeing now.

He’s a go-getter — usually having that killer instinct to seek out his prey and devour it with the terrific tackling that he does out there. We know that will not be any weak character trait that Cunningham will possess.

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The Houston Texans must start to plan for life without Brian Cushing as his career is edging closer to a finale — at least here in H-Town — as guys continue to get stronger, faster and more fearless than ever. But at least I can assert that Cunningham is definitely trending in the right direction so it will interesting to evaluate his progress as time goes on.

Go Texans.

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