Going into the bye week, the Houston Texans had a lot of things to address. Among them was their problems tackling, which have frequently resulted in chunk plays and points for their opponents.
This was a point of emphasis throughout the bye week. Head coach DeMeco Ryans addressed specifically what the problem has been with the Texans in tackling and how this was handled during the bye week.
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“For tackling, we’ll look at different ways to emphasize it in our practices. ‘How do we just put guys in different positions? How do we do more of it to make sure guys are emphasizing it?’ Specifically, it’s the wrapping and squeezing. We’re there. We’re trying to play physical. We’re trying to knock guys back,” Ryans said. “But we have to make sure we’re securing. First man in specifically has to secure the tackle and we can do a better job of having our cleats in the ground, having our body positioned in a proper way where we’re really getting in front of guys.”
The first chance for Texans fans to see if their defense has actually gotten better at tackling will be in their Sunday game against the winless Los Angeles Chargers. It is not the best test for this defense given how poor the Chargers have played, but it will be a good warm-up for when they face the Cleveland Browns in Week 10.
“We’ve missed a ton of tackles, as I’ve analyzed it,” Ryans said. “We’ve missed a ton of tackles with our body position not being exactly where it needs to be. We’ve been too much to the side of guys and not putting our body in front of guys, so we have to do a better job of that.”
Cleveland is currently 5-3 with wins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans. As for the remainder of the Texans’ schedule, they have games against the Ravens, Titans, Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles, all of whom are dealing with either season-ending injurys or quick rebuilds.
Kickoff from SoFi Stadium is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Texans HC DeMeco Ryans on Houston’s tackling issues amid 2-5 start
