As others have mentioned, clowney and merciless stepping up their games help fill the void and the secondary ( until the injuries) were playing very well.
I think for sure the Texans win the Chargers, Packers, and Raiders games if they have a healthy Watt, so IMO that's 3 games right there. It's also possible that the Vikings game looks totally different if Watt is out there pressuring Bradford. He just lifts the play of everyone else on the defense.
The thing with JJ is that he makes third down, drive killing plays that forces the punt. Three or four times a game.
And on top of that, he's just such a disruptive player that he commands the attention of the offense, which allows other players to make plays even if they stop JJ. Clowney does the same thing to a lesser extent (Every defensive player in the NFL's impact would be "a lesser extent" than JJ). When you have the 2 of them out there together and healthy, it's amazing. QB's are no longer comfortable in the pocket, and that leads to bad plays making the job of EVERYONE on the defense easier.
A lot. Defense win championships provided you have good defensive players. Not the likes of JJ Fatt who is an over-rated mediocre defensive player and he will never win a championship for the Texans Take that to the bank
I went through the schedule and if JJ watt had played and the opponent had scored 2 less points the Texans would have no extra wins.
They likely don't beat the Chiefs this year without Watt playing (so many people have already forgotten that).
watt is a once in a generation player. It saddens me what tony dungy did to the league with people now so obsessed with 'passing' numbers. can you imagine what Defenders could do if, after whining to the league, they were allowed to line up in the neutral zone. That's the type of advantage given to the offense so little fantasy geeks can get their hard ons. Defensive players matters! So does scheme. If you can have both wonderful things can happen unless you're houston and the gods say no watt for a year. =( Watt, Clowney, Bernardrick, Bouye, Merciless, johnson and simon who was coming into his own. That's a top defense.(draft best safety)
Agreed, and if we say that the Texans wouldn't have beat the Cheifs without Watt and would have beat the Packers, Raiders, and Chargers with Watt, that's 4 games right there.
