They call it home-field advantage for a reason. But an AFC team with a clear home-field disadvantage has become
Max Scharping Jersey 2019 , coincidentally or not, the conference’s premier road team.The 9-3 Chargers have won five of six road games this year, victorious in
all venues except the L.A. Coliseum. Which makes the Chargers 4-3 in the L.A.
Metropolitan Area — and 5-0 elsewhere.Wins have come in places like Pittsburgh
in prime time and Seattle, tough locales for any road team. And that bodes well
for the Chargers, who seem to be locked in as the No. 5 seed, when the playoffs
roll around and they could be returning to Pittsburgh, and then hitting the road
for places like New England, Kansas City, or Houston.The toughest road test yet
comes on Thursday, when the Chargers try to break a nine-game losing streak to
the Chiefs by beating them in their own building. If the Chargers can pull it
off, they’ll need to be taken even more seriously as a team that can go on the
road in the playoffs and win, possibly/probably because they never actually play
a true home game.Among the other top AFC contenders, the Steelers are 4-1-1 on
the road, the Chiefs have a 5-2 road record, the Texans are 4-2 away from home,
and the Patriots are 3-3. New England has a 6-0 record at home
Max Scharping Jersey Mens , the Chiefs are 5-0, the Texans are 5-1, and the Steelers are 3-3. I’m ten toes in it and I just don’t get it."Monday morning the dinner bell
rang and free agency unofficially began as teams and players and agents tampered
around. So many ways to improve the roster, infinite hopes and dreams, millions
of dollars to spend, oh the possibilities. The Texans lunged out of the gate and
snagged a rabbit immediately. They signed defensive end Angelo Blackson to a
3-year $12 million contract worth $3.5 million guaranteed. Ugh, ok. In case you
already forgot, the Texans had the best run defense in football last season.
Their front seven composed of players like J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney,
Benardrick McKinney, Zach Cunningham, D.J. Reader, and a competent tackling
secondary stuffed rushing attacks. Teams averaged 3.4 yards an attempt against
them, the lowest average in the league. The Texans had a run defense DVOA of
-30.1%, the best rating in the league. It turns out when you have a front seven
with players like this, making plays like this
Youth Max Scharping Jersey , having mediocre run defenders really doesn’t matter. The problem Houston had entering this offseason was their pass defense. They
couldn’t stop any team with a competent passing attack. Their cornerback play
was a gray and fetid stained sheet. To improve the pass defense, they faced an
enormous hurdle. The cornerback options in free agency were whatever. The Texans
signed Bradley Roby to a one-year $10 million contract, but the former first
round pick finished 82nd, 68th, 49th, and 81st out of 85 qualified cornerbacks
in yd/pass allowed, success rate, air yards per pass attempt, and yards allowed
after the catch per Football Outsiders Charting Data. The other options are/were
guys like Steven Nelson, Ronald Darby, Pierre Desir, Darqueze Dennard, Jason
Verrett, and Morris Claiborne. This is a carnival. These are spins at the wheel.
The most dependable way to improve the pass defense was by improving their pass
rush. The Texans pass rush consisted nearly entirely on Watt and Clowney.
Outside of these two the Texans had next to nothing. Watt and Clowny accounted
for 46.9% of the team’s pass pressures, 58% of the team’s sacks, and 57.5% of
the team’s quarterback hits. Whitney Mercilus had 30.5 pressures
White Max Scharping Jersey , but the interior of the defense barely registered anything at all whatsoever. This offseason four of their interior defenders entered free
agency. Brandon Dunn (RFA), Christian Covington, Joel Heath, and Angelo
Blackson, who I thought was the best of the bunch entering free agency. And what
did the Texans do? They tendered Dunn, signed Heath for another year, and for
whatever reason, gave Blackson $4 million a year. Blackson specifically
accounted for 3 passes defensed, 5 hurries, 2 quarterback hits, and 1 sack over
the course of 430 snaps. This is as infinitesimal as pass rushing production can
get for a player who played almost half of all defensive snaps.Instead of
improving their interior rush, the Texans kept the same used car inflatables
around. The two big interior rushers available were Malik Jackson, who signed a
3-year $30 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Sheldon
Richardson, who signed a 3-year $36 million contract with the Cleveland Browns.
Jackson is a great stunter, slaps down passes
Vyncint Smith Jersey , and is awesome at collapsing the pocket and limiting the space where the quarterback can step up. The perfect player to run blitz schemes
off of and to create one v. one pass rushes for Watt and Clowney with.
Richardson is a dominant bull rusher that wins pass rushes and creates
disruption on his own. Other than that, there wasn’t’t much of anything else
here. Two players that could have been integral to helping the Texans’ pass rush
went elsewhere. Here lies the problem with the Blackson contract. It’s not that
it’s a cap crippling deal Houston can’t get out of—they can get out of it before
the 2019 season even starts and be ok—it’s the opportunity cost and a wasted
allocation of funds. Instead of expanding upon that $4 million and making a run
at a defensive player who could actually create disruption and smear
quarterbacks across the field, the Texans instead kept things exactly the same.
They kept the same interchangeable bodies, who can’t rush the passer, and
brought them back for another season. Houston also made a run at Rodger Saffold
to play left guard. Saffold is a perfect outside zone blocker. He can make every
block required. He can reach the outside shoulder, get to the second level, cut
off the backside, and has a feel for when to stay and exit a double team. It was
reported they were simply outbid by the Titans. Instead of picking up the best
left guard available in this free agent market, Houston is locked out, stuck
with the slightly below average Senio Kelemete, who still struggles with his
hands, and is more miss than hit at the second level. That $4 million a year
could have been allocated better elsewhere. Sure, the offseason isn’t over.
There are other crappier pass rush options available. With the way Houston
rushed the edge last year, they could use a speed rushing bend and rip guy. Shaq
Barrett is this, and was productive until Bradley Chubb pushed him down the
depth chart. Muhamad Wilkerson, Markus Golden
Jordan Thomas Jersey , and Justin Houston have all done things before. But there really isn’t much here. It’s frustrating Houston had the opportunity to go after
a great interior rusher, that could greatly improve a nonexistent part of the
team while masking their biggest weakness, and instead said, nah, let’s just run
it back again with the same guys, do the same thing, and hope the darts they
throw at the secondary will be more than enough. My guess is they won’t be, and
the Texans used money that could have improved the pass rush on a player whose
best strength is not being a net negative on the best run defense in football.
Blackson is redundant. He’s nearly identical to Heath, or Dunn, or Covington.
And he isn’t worth the contract he received. I don’t get it. I really
don’t.
