Everybody is looking for the biggest key to Saturday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans. The talk has centered around Kansas City blocking J.J. Watt and the ability of Marcus Peters to match up with DeAndre Hopkins. Truthfully, those are important, but they miss the mark.
The biggest turning point will be whether the Chiefs can get pressure on Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer. Hoyer has a ridiculously bad 1.5 QBR (the scale goes from 1-100) when under pressure. If you watch film, Hoyer crumbles and makes horrible decisions when he has rushers flying in his face. This is not Brett Favre by any stretch.
In the first matchup between these two teams, Houston allowed five sacks. That was with former All-Pro left tackle Duane Brown healthy, and with Chiefs nose tackle Dontari Poe still playing about half the snaps as he was still recovering from back surgery.
If Justin Houston and Tamba Hali can create pressure off the edges, Hoyer and Houston are in major trouble. Frankly, the Chiefs will win barring a turnover fest on the offensive side of the ball. Houston will be facing right tackle Derek Newton, whom he abused in Week 1. Hali now goes against Brown’s replacement, Chris Clark.
If Kansas City wants to win, the road is paved with pressure on Hoyer.