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A closer look at Chris Johnson's three touchdowns: Part I
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Chris Johnson scores the first of his three TDs against the Texans Sunday (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
If it wasn't painful enough to watch, you might wonder why in the heck am I re-living three plays that had most Texans fans throwing things at their television sets on Sunday afternoon.
One reason is that they were such colossal breakdowns in the Texans defense that natural curiosity made me go back and check out the stop action on my DVR (a few dozen times) to see what the heck happened.
Another reason is because so many callers to the talk shows today were asking 'what happened,' and I didn't hear a very good explanation all day.
So here goes with my attempt to explain what I saw on my DVR.
TD#1:
Situation: 8:41 mark of the 1st quarter, no score, Tennessee on their own 43 yard line, 3rd and 17.
The Texans came out in what looked like a basic 4-2-5 nickel. Mario, Amobi, Smith and Barwin were the down linemen L to R, DeMeco and Cushing were lined up in tandem over the guards - DeMeco about 5 yards off the line and Cushing a little bit tighter. Dunta and Glover Quin were man up on the two receivers away from the play, and Brice McCain was man up on Kenny Britt who was split left on the play side
In addition to three wides, the Titans lined up a tight end right. Collins was in the shotgun and Johnson was the lone setback lining up about five yards deep to Collins' left, just inside left tackle Michael Roos.
Collins took the snap and made a little sprint handoff to Johnson, Titans left guard Eugene Amano sealed off Antonio Smith to the inside while Connor Barwin ran himself out of the play rushing outside Roos.
Cushing hesitated just enough at the handoff to let Titans center Kevin Mawae get to him and tie him up (key block #1). Roos, without Barwin to worry about, fired out and buried Texans safety Dominique Barber who was coming up to meet the play (key block #2).
Meanwhile, McCain lost outside contain to Titans receiver Britt who took McCain inside and to the ground with another good block (key block #3).
Ryans, who followed the tight end for a second or two after the snap, couldn't get over in time and appeared to take a bad angle on Johnson (doesn't everyone) before getting caught up in the McCain/Britt/Roos/Barber pileup..
Once Johnson got outside McCain/Britt, it was all over.
If McCain had kept outside contain, he would have run Johnson into Ryans' pursuit, although I can also see that Cushing should have been more decisive on the read which would have kept Mawae from getting his hands on him so quickly.
The TD came on the seventh play of the drive and what's maddening is not just that it was a 3rd and 17, but also that the Texans had stopped Johnson for negative yardage on three of the previous six plays of the drive.
That's become thematic of the Texans run defense so far this season.
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