HOUSTON — When the Houston Texans took on the Indianapolis Colts in October, the secondary had arguably their worst performance of the season. The Texans’ defense gave up 214 yards through the air, which included a 51-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Carson Wentz to receiver Parris Campbell.
The Colts took a 31-3 victory over the Texans at Lucas Oil Stadium after Wentz had a field day against Houston. And on Sunday, defensive coordinator Lovie Smith is hoping that the Texans’ secondary will enter NRG Stadium rejuvenated against the now 6-6 Colts.
“We are not the same team we were back then — we’ve grown a lot,” Smith said Thursday morning. “The discipline of the defense, we’ve seen a lot more. But it’s easy to say that when someone beats you up the way they did us the first time, you want another shot. We get our shot at home, so we are excited about it.”
Over the previous three games, the secondary has potentially been the Texans’ most impressive position group. With eight interceptions, the secondary has accounted for 73% of the Texans’ 11 total takeaways — dating back to their Week 9 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
During a 22-13 road victory over the Tennessee Titans, the Texans recorded four interceptions against quarterback Ryan Tannehill — who threw for a season-high in the loss.
The resurgence in the Texans’ ability to force quarterbacks into turnovers has been Smith’s defensive scheme of making plays on the ball. The Texans have also improved their secondary in giving up long passes since the loss against Indianapolis in October.
“The big thing is making sure you’re deeper than the deepest,” coach Culley said. “We’ve had a couple of times early in the year where when that happened, we were kind of seeing things and trying to make plays outside of the framework of what we needed to be doing in the defense. I think we’ve gotten much better at that now, and that’s why you’re seeing those things eliminated.”
Culley continued: “Usually, when you see one happen like that, it usually happens simply because somebody’s got his eyes in the wrong place instead of playing the defense the way it should be played. When you do that, people take advantage of that. We’ve been very fortunate to not give up those kinds of things lately, and hopefully, they continue that.”
With 14 interceptions, the Texans are entering their Week 13 match against the Colts with the league’s fifth-most takeaways (20) on the season.