Things were a little different when the Texans last visited Baltimore in Week 6.
Some things are quite obvious, like Matt Schaub being the starting quarterback. But other things are less obvious and played a major role in the outcome of the game.
Mario Williams sustained a season ending injury against the Raiders in Week 5 and Wade Phillips was still trying to figure out what to do at outside linebacker when the Texans lined up against the Ravens the following week.
"We’d lost Mario (Williams the week before)," said Texans head coach Gary Kubiak. "We were going to work Brooks (Reed) at Will (weakside outside linebacker), then we moved him to Sam (strongside), so ... that was all kind of going on with our team." (houstontexans.com)
Reed and Connor Barwin settled in to their current positions (Reed at Sam and Barwin at Will) the following week and since then, the Texans have given up more than 20 points only twice (and one of those was the season finale when they played second teamers in a meaningless game against the Titans).
"(The first game against the Ravens) was bad in one way, but it was good in another in that after the game we made some changes," said defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. "We realized we couldn’t give up big plays, secondary-wise I’m talking about, and overall, but we flipped both outside linebackers, changed positions after that game and I think it fit both of them better."
The change seemed to ignite the defense's overall improvement against the pass and run.
"Everybody said we weren’t going to be very good against the run, that kind of stuff, and we didn’t play great in that game against the run, but after that I think we played tremendously strong against the run," said Phillips. (houstontexans.com)
Except for the Carolina game in Week 16, of course, when the Texans gave up 166 on the ground.
My post-game report from the Week 6 loss to the Ravens >>> Texans compete, play hard, lose
Indeed, the game against the Ravens in Week 6 was one of the Texans worst showings defensively, and that's against a team not known for a great offense.
The Texans gave up 402 total yards and 29 points to the Ravens that day which was their second-worst performance of the season after the 454 and 40 they gave up against New Orleans in Week 3.
Lawrence Vickers will still trying to work his way into the flow back in Week 6 which also had an effect on the Texans running game. The Texans managed only 93 yards on 25 carries against the Ravens the first time around.
Also, James Casey was injured and inactive against the Ravens the first time around so look for the Texans to try to exploit matchups against Bernard Pollard when they motion Casey out to the slot on Sunday.
Oh yeah, Andre Johnson didn't play in that game either and just having him on the field Sunday will affect how the Ravens play defense. Ed Reed will have to keep at least one eye on Johnson which could open up things in other parts of the secondary.
Of course the x-factor on Sunday will be how T.J. Yates handles the pressure of a stage that's getting bigger by the week.
Yates has come a long way in the last seven games and some of his rawness is starting to rub off, although a front seven like the Ravens can turn you back into a rookie really quick.
The key will be to keep Yates in a position where he doesn't have to put the game on his shoulders. That means - same old story - the Texans need to run the ball well, move the chains, play good defense, and hope to force Joe Flacco and Ray Rice into a turnover or two. Or even better, get a defensive or special teams score.
The Texans were plus-2 in turnovers against the Ravens last time around, and the only thing it accomplished was to keep them in the game through three quarters.
The Texans need to play a full 60 minutes of error free football this time around if they want to advance to the AFC Championship game.
Did I just type the words 'Texans' and 'AFC Championship' in the same sentence? What a strange feeling that was.
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