How the Texans' Pass Rush Attacked the Chargers

The discussion about the Texans for the last few weeks centered around which AFC Wild Card team would “get” to play them.

I have a feeling DeMeco Ryans and his team were listening to that chatter, because they delivered a butt-kicking of biblical proportions on Saturday, at least on the defensive side of the ball.

Houston got after Justin Herbert, pressuring him on a staggering 50% of his dropbacks. They finished the day with 4 sacks and 4 interceptions, including a pick-6.

The Texans spent most of the season relying on the dangerous combination of Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter off both edges. They predominantly used 4-man rushes and blitzed on just 25.7% of pass plays, the 6th-lowest rate in the NFL according to

Cody Alexander

of Match Quarters.

On Saturday against the Chargers, they flipped the script and brought pressure on 38.9% of Herbert’s drop backs. For context, that rate would be high enough to put them at 6th in the NFL in blitz frequency during the regular season.

I’m guessing a big part of this had to do with how comfortable they felt locking down L.A.’s receivers with cornerbacks Derek Stingley, Jr. and Kamari Lassiter. That allowed them to dedicate an extra defender to the pass rush.

And here’s the thing with Houston’s 5-man rushes; when they bring 5, they aren’t typically doing it with overload pressures or exotic blitzes. They generally like to align with 5 men on the line of scrimmage to force the O-line into 1-on-1’s. Then they attack with stunts or let their edge rushers eat.

And that’s what they did all afternoon vs. L.A., just at a higher frequency.

This first example was a 3rd-and-9 in the first quarter. Notice those 5 defenders across the line of scrimmage. They used a tilted front (which is their go-to look) with 3 D-linemen to one side of the center and 1 edge rusher to the other side. They also dropped a linebacker down over the right guard to create the 5-man front:

The Chargers would protect it with a 3-man slide to the left and man blocking to the back side:

That left the middle open for Will Anderson to get through on a stunt from the outside, and he got his hand on Herbert’s arm just as he was releasing the ball:

You can see that center Bradley Bozeman (#75) was occupied by the penetrator on the stunt coming through the A-Gap. That made him just late enough to react to the speedy Anderson, who looked like he was shot out of a cannon.

On this 3rd-and-4 on the Chargers’ next drive, you can see the same look. This time, Houston brought a 2-man stunt inside. And linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (#0) only rushed initially to occupy the left guard before dropping out.

However, because of the front, Danielle Hunter (#55) got a 1-on-1. He used a speed-to-power move to drive left tackle Rashawn Slater into Herbert for the pressure: