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Texans on the Defensive

Updated: Monday, August 20 2012, 08:34 AM CDT
Of the NFL teams that have played two preseason games, nobody has allowed fewer yards than the Texans, and only the defending Super Bowl champs have recorded more sacks. Houston's defense is dominant, but that was not always the case.
The Texans two field generals, head coach Gary Kubiak and Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips, are about as domineering as Wal-Mart greeters.

"They get their point across, they just don't do it publicly," said Houston Offensive Lineman Kasey Studdard.

After all, why be demonstrative when your stats can put on a show for you?

Kubiaks's offense has ranked in the top 10 in the NFL each of the past four seasons. Up until last year, when Phillips took over as defensive coordinator, the gap between the Texans' offense and defense was thicker than the Houston humidity. That is not the case anymore.

"The best teach and the best kind of pressure is peer pressure," says Houston defensive back Danieal Manning. "We practice against [the offense] everyday."

“I ask them to do certain things and if they don't do it, I tell them they didn't do it," says Wade Phillips, entering his second season as Houston's defensive coordinator. "I try to be honest with my players."

In his first season with the Texans, Phillips turned the NFL's worst defense into the league's second best. However, the buzz around training camp is that Houston's "D" could be even better in 2012.
"We set high goals with our team and we expect to make it," says Phillips. "We've got a great, hard-working team. They're self-motivated."

"You can tell the mark of a team that wants to consider itself among the best," says Manning. "Personnel, work ethic, things like that. But you can't just put that down on paper, you have to put it on wax."

So while Houston worries about waxing, the Texans days as merely a one-dimentional football team waning. Houston has transformed itself into a well-rounded contender, and done so without a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Exactly like their unassuming field generals would want it.

Texans on the Defensive