Texans' Will Anderson Jr. Leads the NFL With 7.5 Sacks at the Bye - and the Defense Behind Him Keeps Spending What He Earns
No pass rusher in the league has more sacks through seven games. Houston's defensive line is tied for the league lead, too. The Texans are 2-5 anyway, and the bye-week file explains the contradiction.
HOUSTON - The Houston Texans' bye week has one unambiguous bright spot, and he lines up on the edge. Through seven games, Will Anderson Jr. has recorded 7.5 sacks - the most in the NFL at the Week 7 mark - and has become, in Athlon's stock-watch assessment, the defense's most reliable playmaker. Opposite him, Danielle Hunter has added four sacks, and the Texans' defensive line as a unit has produced 21 sacks, tied for the league lead.
Anderson's production has come in bunches. He took down Indianapolis quarterbacks 2.5 times in Week 3, added a half sack against Dallas in Week 4, and posted his best outing against Tennessee in Week 5 - three sacks in Houston's 26-3 win. The quieter games tell the other half of the story: no sacks against Jacksonville in Week 6 or the Giants in Week 7, and just half a sack against Buffalo in the opener. When Anderson does not get home, Houston's defense has too often had nothing behind him.
That is the contradiction the bye has to solve. The same defense that owns a share of the league's sack lead allowed 440 total yards to New York in the overtime loss - 188 of them rushing - and forced no turnover. Athlon's assessment is blunt: missed tackles and coverage breakdowns have undermined the pass rush's work, and explosive plays through the secondary have repeatedly undone what the front creates.
Houston resumes play November 8 against the Los Angeles Chargers at 2-5, with four losses already on the final possession. The pass rush is not the problem to fix over the bye. Everything behind it is.
