An already leaky Houston Texans defense certainly doesn’t aid from tackling.
The Texans sit ninth in the NFL in missed tackles with 98, according to Pro Football Reference. It should come as no surprise that they’ve allowed the NFL’s third-most yards after the catch (1,663).
Heading into a vital three-week stretch where the Texans need to win two games to clinch the playoffs, that’s not going to cut it. Teams will, and have, exploited that. How will they stop that from happening? Defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel has the answer.
“You work on trying to have great angles, good fits, put yourself in position to make a good tackle if you could tackle,” Crennel said on Thursday. “That’s what you have to do.”
According to Crennel, the Texans see positioning as their biggest crux as a tackling defense. Late into the season, it’s going to be tough to fix that.
“Then when it gets to the game, hopefully getting in position and putting yourself in great tackling position, then you can execute the rest of the tackle on gameday,” Crennel said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Only two other teams with winning records rank within the top-10 of missed tackles, with the other teams being the Buffalo Bills (99) and the Tennesee Titans (97), who will face the Texans on Sunday.
Though their tackling woes have not yet held Houston from possessing a winning record. They sit at 8-5 through 13 games, in turn tying them on top of the AFC South. However, a struggling pass-rush and secondary coupled with a need to take better positioning when stopping ball-carriers could doom the Texans.
The Texans have three weeks. The hope is to learn how to take better angles and run fits must turn into reality. If not, whoever they face will see that as an ideal mismatch worth taking advantage of.