Kansas City Chiefs: Getting to know Houston Texans before Week 6

The Kansas City Chiefs look to rebound from their Week 5 loss against the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium. To do that, the Chiefs will have to beat another AFC South team: the Houston Texans.

To that end, I’ve reached out to a couple of writers covering the Houston Texans for FanSided. First, I spoke with Brian Patterson, the site expert of House of Houston, FanSided’s local site for all things Houston. I also spoke with Stephen Forsha, the site expert for Toro Times, FanSided’s site dedicated solely to the Texans.

Both Brian and Stephen were gracious enough to answer my questions about the Kansas City Chiefs‘ upcoming opponent, a 3-2 squad led by quarterback Deshaun Watson battling for the pole position in the competitive AFC South.

Question 1: The Texans whooped the Falcons in Week 5 to move to 3-2. How do you see Houston growing on that performance?

Patterson: This is an excellent learning experience for this team even as it transitions to Week 6.  They know what it will take now to be able to win games.  The key components were Deshaun Watson getting the ball out on time and the defense being able to effectively shut down the run game, making [Atlanta running back] Devonta Freeman virtually ineffective to the Falcons’ attack. 

The offense has too many weapons to be forsaken as they have been and they’re going to run this blueprint as long as their opponents can’t figure a way to stop it.  It gives them confidence knowing that if they don’t toe to the line and continue to attack their opponent, the can go out and beat ANYBODY.

Forsha: Those type of performances don’t happen every week, but the Texans can grow on that performance because they now know how dominate they can be when they are running on all cylinders. The offense of Houston in Week 5 was outstanding, and with Deshaun Watson still being a young quarterback, seeing him throwing the ball like he did was really something to build on.

Question 2: In Week 4 in Houston against the Panthers, Deshaun Watson threw for only 160 yards in a 16-10 loss. Against Atlanta, he went off for 426 yards. What’s the key to Watson being successful?

Forsha: The key to that success was first and foremost he was sacked six times against the Panthers, and this past week he wasn’t sacked at all. When given the proper amount of time, and he’s not holding onto the football for too long, Watson can be close to unstoppable. The play of [wide receiver] Will Fuller taking advantage of the coverage on him helped matters too.

Patterson: As I mentioned previously, he got rid of the ball on time with terrific decision-making on the fly.  He didn’t [hold] onto the football, allowing himself to be vulnerable to get sacked.  The offensive line didn’t give up a sack as a result because they had adequate time to hold the defensive line.  Watson took what the defense gave him and he reaped substantial rewards from it as a result. 

Will Fuller was finding ways to get open as his counterpart — DeAndre Hopkins — caused him to be open DEEP. Yes, finally, our deep ball threat was able to make some noise with the most amount of receiving yards in a game within his career. The Falcons’ double-team wasn’t working and either Fuller or Keke Coutee made them pay.  We won’t see this amount of yards racked up every game but this offense will be taken to another level regardless if his new style continues.