Week 2 in the NFL brings us an intriguing AFC South matchup of two teams with vastly different Week 1 outcomes, when the Houston Texans travel to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars.
Last week the Texans comfortably handled rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill with Matt Schaub efficient in his return after missing a significant portion of last season due to a foot injury. Meanwhile, Jacksonville suffered a crushing 26-23 overtime defeat in Minnesota, a matchup in which their second-year quarterback made some crucial throws late in the game to knot the score, including a 39-yard touchdown and 2-point conversion with only 20 seconds remaining in the fourth.
Every cloud has a silver lining and all. After being swept by the Texans in 2011, the Jaguars look to get their 2012 season on track with a victory, while Houston will attempt to take more control of the AFC South and remain a prospective Super Bowl contender. Here are three exciting matchups to watch for.
Handling Watt
Called a future Hall of Famer this offseason by his coordinator Wade Phillips, J.J. Watt did nothing to dissuade that notion in his first game, giving Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey nightmares in the process. Doing the bulk of his work in the first half against Miami, Watt ended with four quarterback disruptions, two stops in the run game, and an additional three batted passes. Even more frightening for Jacksonville is that Watt did this in only 48 snaps. In other words, with 12 positively-graded plays, Watt made a significant impact once in every four snaps. No play depicted his day better than at 12:23 of the first quarter, where he easily knifed into the backfield past Miami guard John Jerry and forced an incompletion.
The unit tasked with dealing with the Texans front is led by tackle Eugene Monroe (+5.4), who was perfect against Jared Allen as he didn’t allow a single quarterback disruption. At the other tackle spot, however, the prospects are much shakier as neither Guy Whimper nor Cameron Bradfield had any success against Brian Robison. Bradfield's status is uncertain here as he left the Vikings game due to a lower leg injury and hasn't practiced. It's true that right guard Uche Nwaneri made some positive plays in the run game, he received a grade of (-1.7) in pass protection. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Watt spends nearly all his time (40 out of 48 snaps last Sunday) lined up on their right side. Look for a similar pattern Sunday as Houston will try to take advantage of the leaky right side of Jacksonville’s offensive line.
Passing Against Jonathan Joseph
Against the Vikings, Blaine Gabbert made tremendous strides in becoming an NFL-caliber passer; His grade of +2.6 bested every one of his 2011 performances and he managed an Accuracy Percentage of 71.1%, despite being pressured on 41.9% of drop backs, fifth most of any quarterback in Week 1. Gabbert is even looking downfield more often and completed two of his four attempted deep passes.
Against the Texans, he’ll have to pass against a corner that had an outstanding Week 1 in Johnathan Joseph. Lining up at RCB on all but eight plays, Joseph gave up only one catch in four targets and his Yards Per Cover Snap (0.09) led the league with just three yards allowed on 34 plays in coverage. He’ll primarily see rookie Justin Blackmon and Laurent Robinson, who combined for eight receptions in 39 routes at LWR, with the Texans likely to man him up on the rookie receiver. With these things considered, it will be interesting to see whether Cecil Shorts (+3.1) gets more playing time this week after gaining an NFL-best 6.17 Yards Per Route Run.
Needless to say, if Joseph is able to shut down an entire side of the field against Jacksonville, Gabbert is in for a long game, especially with Watt and the rest of the Houston front seven coming after him.
Andre Johnson vs. Jaguars Secondary
Not only do the Jaguars have to get past a couple of studs on offense, they also must contain one of the NFL’s top receiving threats in Andre Johnson. It appears that Johnson’s chemistry with Schaub is already in midseason form, as he caught eight of 10 targets for 119 yards and a touchdown against Miami.
The other side of this matchup features a secondary that largely struggled against a Christian Ponder-led passing attack. Newcomer Aaron Ross (-2.4) looked out of sync in a new defense and was repeatedly picked on, allowing six of seven targets to be completed for 79 yards. Elsewhere, Dawan Landry and Kevin Rutland each allowed every pass thrown against them to be completed. Only Rashean Mathis graded out positively, though he only played 21 snaps as he is being eased back from the torn ACL he sustained last year. The Texans like to move Johnson around, so he should match up against almost every player in the Jags' secondary at some point on Sunday. And, although he lined up slightly more often on the left side of the offense against Miami, don’t necessarily expect to see many passes thrown in that direction — eight of his 10 targets were thrown to the middle or right side of the field.
How the secondary fares against a much more formidable passing game will be significant in determining the outcome. Jacksonville will have to maintain discipline on screens and bootlegs. They’ll also need to exploit an offensive line that struggled in Week 1 outside of left tackle Duane Brown; improving on a Week 1 total of seven QB disruptions is paramount.
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