Let me start by saying i think the defense is playing poorly right now and some will say its going to get worse before getting better. I watch the game from the inside out and its easy to see alot of the problems the texans are having. Its easy or its fandom to blame the coach or just one player or so because of their dislike, but i like to look at everything asociated in breakdowns. Its obvious the texans are underacheiving on defense. We see the first rd picks and the free agents and think they should be better and i agree, but there is a lot of blame to go around and is compounded from level to level. Great defense or even good defense works on a string as they say. One leads to the other that reacts to the other. Of course its easy to see the long runs and blame it on the defensive line. Some want to blame the safeties and the lack of a stud. This is why is say its 3 level defense and everyone needs to do their job. If the coach calls for a run blitz and each of the front four is responsible for 1 gap, the lb's are responsible for 3 more and the safety is for the other, all it takes is 1 guy peeking and the guys is out the shoot. Thats what happened on MJD 61 yd run sunday. Busing was peeking out of his gap on a fill and overran the play as did cushing which left the back door open. Has anyone noticed all the big runs have taken place on the left side on opposite mario? Teams are starting that way and then the cut back is open and its a wrap. That happned with peterson in the preseason as well as bell and now its taking over during the regular season. If everyone does their job, thats not happening. 3rd and long plays. These are the ones that are driving people crazy. this is where the defense has earned the right to rush the passer. People can talk about bush, but the texans have forced alot of 3rd and longs, but sadly they haven't gotten guys off the field enough. Its easy to blame the secondary, but there is also a huge gap in the middle. As much or as well as people thing the texans lb's are playing, they're getting killed in the passing game. All 3 have problems with route recognition and are letting alot of teaser routes get them out of they're proper depth. Also with these middle of the field type of routes coming open so quickly, they rush isn't having time to get there. The inside push to support the outside upfield rush hasn't been up to par either. Many will not think this is a concern or a problem area, but go look at some of those middle field throws that were complete. Those are suppose to be where the most traffic and tightest windows are, but because the lb's are poor in getting proper depth and reading routes, its like the center of a zinger. I can look at a team defense like the eagles or giants that dont have the high 1st rd players on defense or expensive free agents and they have performed much better than the texans. It seems like more times than not, everyone is doing what everyone is supposed to do. They will have their moment like every other team, but other than the giants 2 yrs ago at the beginning have a defense looked so bad. hopefully they can get it turne around before its too late. Just think, they haven't even played a good offense yet.
No question in my mind the gap integrity is the biggest issue aside from Okoye's play overall. I am not the scapegoat type. I agree with your post but I do think it's worth pointing out that there is a consistency between Okoye's play and the breakdowns we're seeing from the Safeties in run support. On several occasions he is getting completely run out of the play making the gap that the safety should be in wider. If said safety is cheating out a bit and then suddenly this huge hole opens up he's not going to have any help. Is the Safety at fault? Yes. Is Okoye making it even worse? Yes. Biggest issues are gap integrity mostly from our Safeties that are playing down (basically Busing and Barber), Okoye's poor play against the run and Bennett's poor play across the board. Poor tackling from all of the secondary is also huge at this point. The poor tackling baffles me. It seems like that could be coached. I think Lance Z pointed out in training camp during our practices with the Saints that there seemed to be a large focus on tackling and getting in position to tackle but that doesn't seem to be translating onto the field. Bennett has no business being on the field as our 2nd best corner. His technique is so bad. Dunta's tackling is extremely poor also. I would like to go on record that I like the scheme. I cannot figure out why there are so many mistakes. It's truly baffling.
