The Houston Texans hired Lovie Smith as their defensive coordinator to fix their takeaway problem. Houston only generated nine turnovers through 16 games last season, the fewest in the NFL.
Through three games of the preseason, the Texans gathered 10 takeaways, the most in the NFL during the exhibition season.
However, new coach David Culley doesn’t really care about the number of turnovers the defense had, so much that the preaching of takeaways throughout the offseason and training camp manifested on the playing field.
“The stats don’t really mean a bunch during the preseason but the one thing that does happen is in a game you get a turnover, you got a turnover and most of those turnovers that we end up getting was forced turnovers, whether we forced the guy to throw it early or coverage and a guy is doing a good job of where he should be in this defense,” Culley said. “I think as far as statistics and as much as run are irrelevant right now but what is relevant is that we have preached about getting turnovers and we got them.”
The Texans will have their first true test of their takeaway operation when they face the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday, Sept. 12 at NRG Stadium. The last time Houston procured a Week 1 takeaway was in 2019 when outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus picked off New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in a 30-28 loss at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.