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Anthony Weaver’s welcoming gift for being promoted to Houston Texans defensive coordinator is he has to stop Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson in consecutive weeks.
The Texans face the Kansas City Chiefs in Game 1 of the 2020 NFL season at Arrowhead Stadium, and then go home to NRG Stadium for a Week 2 showdown with the Baltimore Ravens.
Rather than feeling sorry for himself or blaming the schedule makers for giving Houston a rocky start to the season, the first-year defensive coordinator embraces the opportunity of facing a challenge.
“It’s absolutely exciting,” Weaver told reporters on May 13. “It’s an opportunity for us to put our defense out there and showcase it to the entire world, and show them what we’re going to be.”
The Texans had success against the Chiefs in Week 6 of 2019 at Arrowhead with a 31-24 win. However, in the divisional playoffs, Kansas City overcame a 24-0 deficit, which was bad enough, but then the eventual Super Bowl champions blew the doors off Houston with a 51-31 final score.
Regardless of how one looks at the playoff game, the fact of the matter is Houston’s defense gave up 51 points.
In Week 11 at the Ravens, the Texans defense also had a hard time stopping an offense led by the next generation of quarterbacks as Baltimore stomped Houston 41-7.
The Texans were coming off a wild-card playoff win ahead of their rematch against the Chiefs. Houston was coming off a bye week after a game in London.
Weaver and the Houston coaching staff has all offseason to prepare for these two games, as difficult as they will be.
Said Weaver: “In terms of preparation, that will all be determined when we figure out exactly how this training camp situation and everything is going to go due to COVID. We’re all going to be in the same boat. Everybody will have the exact same amount of preparation time, all players involved, us, Kansas City, Baltimore.”
Weaver expects the defense to be “ready to go” against the Chiefs and Ravens.
“They’ll be champing at the bit and I’m sure having to play those guys in those first two games will be a little bit of extra added motivation going into camp as well,” said Weaver.
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