Houston Texans: The secondary will be key to gaining the team’s first victory

The Houston Texans will face off against the New York Giants on Sunday attempting to win their first game. Here’s why the secondary will be key to the victory.

The Houston Texans are having their home opener in this week three tilt against the New York Giants. You can catch the game on Fox on local channels at 12:00 pm central time. You can also catch the game on the radio on 610 Sports Talk and 100.3 The Bull in Houston.

Hopefully, being back home in front of their fans will give the Texans the extra boost they need to get their first victory. Starting the season 0-3 would officially put Bill O’Brien on the hot seat after warming it up a ton last week.

The Giants have a plethora of playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. They obviously have Odell Bechkam Jr., who DeAndre Hopkins will be battling with to see who is the better receiver. The Giants also have Sterling Shepard, Evan Engram, and even Saquon Barkley, who has been very successful both running the ball and catching the ball.

That is a ton of playmakers for Eli Manning to work with. The problem with the Giants is their offensive line. Eli has had a major issue with getting the ball to his playmakers. So, it appears that getting to the quarterback will be the most important thing in gaining the first victory.

However, as the Titans demonstrated last week, there is an easy way to scheme against the Houston Texans talented pass rush. Blaine Gabbert exposed the Texans secondary with quick snaps, short dropbacks, and quick throws.

I’m sure Pat Shurmur and Eli have seen this film and took notice, especially with their porous offensive line. In all likelihood, they’ll try to execute a similar gameplan to stymie JJ Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus, and Duke Ejiofor.

So, the Houston Texans secondary is actually going to be the biggest key to winning the first game of the season. Tyrann Mathieu and Aaron Colvin have been the only two defensive backs for the Texans who have graded above average according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Johnathan Joseph, Kareem Jackson, and Justin Reid have all left a lot to be desired in coverage. Joseph and Reid both had a pretty decent game against the Patriots but, they both were torched last week against the Titans. Jackson has been fairly average in both games while being surprisingly elite in run stoppage.

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The bad news is the Giants playmakers are immensely more talented than what the Titans trotted out last week. The Texans are going to need guys to step up and improve off of their performance last week. Colvin had a near-elite grade coverage last week yet only played 24 snaps. It’s a mind-blowing mystery to me why he played so little, simply playing Colvin more will help improve the secondary.

Joseph is still the team’s de facto number one corner so, he’ll need to have a huge game to slow down OBJ. Though, he’ll likely have a safety blanketing him deep. So, Mathieu, Jackson, and Reid will need to play well in help coverage to ensure these receivers are slowed.

Also, the Houston Texans look to have their two new corner additions playing this week. Kayvon Webster is finally practicing and may be ready to take his first snaps as a Texan. Shareece Wright also may be ready to take his first meaningful snaps after being signed when Kevin Johnson was placed on the IR.

So, this secondary should be a full health for this matchup with the Giants. They’ll need to be to stop this talented skill position group. This unit will need to improve in order for the Houston Texans gain their first victory.

For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE or ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.