When an NFL team gets ready for a rookie, even when he is making his first start, the defense has film to go off of to get a feel for their young opponent.
However, in 2020, where there weren’t any preseason games, rookie quarterbacks making their debuts midseason are mysteries.
“It’s a little bit tough because there’s no active film on him,” Houston Texans safety Reid said. “You can look at a little bit of college tape, but he’s going to be a little bit different than he was in college. There’s a couple of things that you can rely on about any player getting ready to play their first game is that you know on their side they’re going to be coaching him to stick to the fundamentals. It’s going to be interesting.”
According to Reid, what the Texans will do early in the game is let Luton play his game and see if they can pick up on any tells of his on the fly.
“We’re going to play the first quarter straight, really kind of see whatever quarterback they’re putting in the game, see if we can catch on any tendencies, see if he’s doing what typically first-game quarterbacks do, like stare down their targets or anything like that, see if we can get a better beat on him,” Reid said.
Ultimately, to beat the Jaguars, Reid believes that the defense is going to have to keep the focus on themselves and their own assignment discipline to capture their second win of the season.
Said Reid: “In a game like this when you don’t really have the film to watch, you’ve just got to focus on yourselves more. Focus on what we’re going to do and then make the adjustments in the game as they come.”
The Texans have a golden opportunity to execute a series sweep with quarterback Gardner Minshew out of the lineup and Luton coming in. They need to maximize their efforts to ensure they complete the sweep.
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