In their Week 14 loss to the 5-8 Denver Broncos, the Houston Texans struggled mightily against the play-action. Per Pro Football Focus, via Aaron Reiss of The Athletic, Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock went 7 of 8 for 130 yards on play-action against Houston.
Why did they struggle against play-action? Defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel can credit it to the defense falling forward into the run only to see a pass-catcher whiz behind them, turning a minimal gain into a chunk play.
“Rush and coverage go together. It all goes together,” Crennel said Thursday. “Like I said, in the running game, if you get sucked up in the run, then there’s space between the linebackers and the DBs. If they can find that space particularly, and the ball is placed accurately in stride, then the guy is a catch and run situation. So, a five-yard pass can turn into a 15-yard gain very easily. So, some of that has been happening.”
One week after Lock diced up the Texans on play-action, Houston will have to face the NFL’s best in the same category: (8-5) Tennessee Titans’ Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill is 6-1 as a starter in Nashville. He has thrown for 1,993 yards, 15 touchdowns, five interceptions and a league-high 118.5 passer rating on a 73.4% completion rate.
810 of his passing yards come on play-action, per Pro Football Reference. According to PlayerProfiler, Tannehill leads the NFL in play-action completion rate (75.8%).
As Crennel alluded, the defense can’t afford to suck-up to limit the run-game. The problem: the Titans are very good at doing that to other defenses, as they happen to have a 6-3, 247-pound star running back on their side in Derrick Henry.
Henry, who has rushed for 1,243 yards and 13 touchdowns on five yards per carry, forces defenses to stack the box. He is 12th highest in the NFL runs against a stacked box rate (23.2%), per PlayerProfiler — which the play-action game has benefited from.
On Sunday, Houston will have to find that perfect balance of attempting to limit the run-game while taking away options from Tannehill while doing so. Defenses have yet to crack that case; perhaps the Texans will buck the trend.