“The best we’ve played”: Struggling Broncos offense won't get a break

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – In head coach Gary Kubiak’s first game in charge of playcalling after being hospitalized due to a complex migraine condition, he’ll have his hands full with the Houston Texans defense.

“This will be the best defensive football team that we’ve played this year in my opinion,” Kubiak said in preparation for the Texans. “They have it coming from everywhere right now.”

Similarly to the Broncos, the Texans defense is built on the foundation of a strong pass rush along with a stout secondary. In fact, tight end Virgil Green doesn’t see a weakness in any part of their defense making him agree with Kubiak that it is the best defense they have played.

“If you just think about it, all of the pieces that they have they have premier guys at every position,” Green assessed. “In terms of how many premier guys they have, I would have to agree.”

Also similar to the Broncos, the Texans know how to get to the quarterback.

“They do a good job with their linebackers and getting them involved in the pass rush,” Kubiak explained. “[DE] Jadeveon Clowney and [OLB] Whitney Mercilus are great players.”

On the season so far their sack leaders are all linebackers — Mercilus (4.5), Benardrick McKinney (3) and John Simon (2.5)—and although the Texans are seventh in the NFL in sacks with 16, Kubiak says that isn’t even the most dangerous part of their defense.

“Nobody is creating more negative plays than Houston,” he said. “They’ve been making a lot of people do a lot of negative stuff. We have to be on top of our stuff and make sure that we protect our quarterback.”

“Their front seven is really solid, they can compare with anyone,” added OL Michael Schofield. “Clowney—by far—is playing the best ball of his career, he’s a game-wrecker out there right now…so we are all going to be knowing every time where he is at.”

Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, has battled injuries up until this year, but in the first six games of this season, he has started to live up to his billing. The South Carolina product has been a major reason that the Texans have been able to mostly absorb the loss of J.J. Watt.

“I think [Clowney’s] really stepped up with J.J. [Watt] being out,” Schofield said. “I think since J.J. has been out you see that they’ve all stepped up and they are playing their best ball right now. They know that J.J. is out and they all need to step up and I think that is showing on film right now.”

The three-time recipient of the Defensive Player of the Year award, Watt didn’t even make it through three games this year after re-injuring his back forcing the Texans to put him on the injured reserve. However, Green doesn’t think Watt’s absence is a reason to celebrate.

“Apparently they are playing much better without J.J.,” he said. “Based on the stats, [they aren’t missing Watt] too much.”

Although the Texans are the best defense the Broncos have gone up against, that may speak more to the other opponents that the Broncos have faced and not necessarily the fact that the Broncos won’t be able to move the ball against Houston.

According to points allowed per game, the only team that the Broncos have faced that weren’t a bottom third team was the Cincinnati Bengals, who were just outside of the bottom third at 20 out of 32 teams. The Texans, however, give up just 21.2 points per game, good enough for 13th in the league. The also boast a very stout pass defense, allowing just 189 yards per game in the air, the sixth-fewest.

Another similarity with the Broncos is the Texans’ struggles with stopping the run. They give up 126 yards on the ground, which is the fourth-worst in the league. Schofield knows the importance of the run game to the offense and would love to get it back on track this week.

“That’s what we are working on right now, getting [the running game] going right now like we did the first two games,” he said.

Although the Texans defense opens the door to potentially having a good day on the ground, Schofield didn’t want to get too ahead of himself.

“They’ve been giving up some big plays [on the ground], but we’ve played [teams] like Tampa [Bay] and Cincinnati who were the worst in the NFL rush defense,” he said. “We’re not looking at that, we just got to do our job, know what we got to do and do it.”

If the Broncos offense wants to succeed, the offensive line will need to do their job—keep Trevor Siemian upright and allow the running game to find the rhythm that it had in the first two games of the season.

After being fired by the Houston Texans after the 2013 season, Kubiak would certainly feel a bit of vindication if he is able to figure out how to tackle the Texans defense.