David Culley was pleased with the way the defense played in the 26-7 preseason win over the Green Bay Packers Saturday night at Lambeau Field.
Houston’s defense procured two fumbles and an interception. Those three takeaways along are a third of what the defense produced last season through 16 games.
“I think overall, defensively, they played team defense tonight,” Culley said.
The Texans brought in new defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, going from a 3-4 to a Tampa 2, and emphasizing takeaways.
“This defense — Lovie’s defense — is built on basically creating turnovers, getting turnovers,” said Culley. “We were able to get a few of those tonight. We were close to getting a few more.”
However, letting the Packers off the mat on third-and-long dissatisfied the rookie coach.
“Basically, the thing there is that, we have to make sure, we had a couple of third-and-longs tonight that I know Lovie wasn’t happy with, that we weren’t happy with,” said Culley. “We have to get them off the field on third-and-longs, and we didn’t do a good job of doing that.”
The Texans allowed the Packers to convert on 1-4 third downs that were of nine yards or more to gain. Overall, the Texans held the Packers to 3-11 on third downs.
“Other than that, I though they played really good team defense,” Culley said.
The Texans have a chance to build upon their team defense when they travel to Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 21 to take on the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.