The Secret Sauce Behind the Texans’ Defensive Dominance

Thursday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to Mike Tomlin’s comments on the keys to the Texans’ defensive dominance. It comes as no surprise that Tomlin quickly credits Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter for Houston’s success, but he also shines a spotlight on the Texans’ elite cornerback duo of Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The defensive minded head coach in Pittsburgh, was asked about
what jumps off the page to him, what made him
take notes if you will, about this Houston Texans defense
going into Monday night's wildcard matchup.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
That ed rush tandem in that cornerback tandem are both special.
You see why they're number one in the league in
defense when you got guys that can rush the pass.
So like those two Hunter's got fifteen, will Anderson's got twelve. Collectively,
they got twenty seven, and you got two corners man
that are very aggressive, play close, bump and run coverage.

(00:35):
I think both got four more interceptions in Stingley and Lasseter.
There's no secret why they're kicking a lot of butt.
If you're rushing and covering, you're gonna play good defense.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
There's no secret why they're kicking a lot of butt.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
I mean, I'm not a genius, and I just happen
to be sitting in this chair. I think any number
of people in the city of Houston could have been
sitting in this chair and said the same thing. What
you just heard from him is what I've been saying
saying for weeks. Nobody else in the NFL has what
the Texans have the talent, best edge rushing duo and
the best cornerback duo on the same team. There's only

(01:10):
seven other players out there. Defensively, they have the best
possible combination. If you picked any two edge rushers from
any other team, you would have lesser talent than what
the Texans have. And the same holds true if you
picked any two corners from any other team together and
put them here, you'd be downgrading. No other team can
do what they do. Ben those guys are out there.
To me, what makes them the best is that what

(01:31):
you just said. A lot of times you have to
pick one or the other on any given season with
some of the best defenses or in this case, teams
out there, Oh they got a really great defense. Some
of these guys just play above their heads all the time.
Or this team over here, they've got so many star
name players on that defense, but it just didn't get
the job done as much as you thought it would

(01:52):
this year.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
In the Texans case, they have.

Speaker 5 (01:55):
The star name value and they play like you and
it's basically at every position on that side.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Of the football.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
The other thing that makes it work financially because one
of them's in year two, one of them's in year three,
one of them's in year four. It's almost impossible to
believe one after the other after the other. Starting in
the Stingley Draft, they arguably drafted the best player to
play that position from that draft in three successive years,

(02:27):
in three different

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Spots, and that's why Cassio is still employed.