Pressuring Deshaun Watson was key for Chiefs defense vs. Texans

The Chiefs had the right game plan to apply heavy pressure on Deshaun Watson.

I must give a shoutout to fellow Arrowhead Addict writer Jake Kokoris. During an interview on Wednesday, when asked what the key to this matchup was, he said “if we sack Deshaun Watson four times, we will win the game.”

What an exceptional prediction. Watson, the Houston Texans quarterback, was abysmal under pressure on Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. In 14 pressured dropbacks, he completed one pass for six yards, threw an interception and was sacked four times, .

This highlights the biggest difference between the starting quarterbacks on display during the NFL’s season opening game. Watson, throughout his entire career, has shown much worse pocket presence than Mahomes. In 2019, Mahomes had 284 snaps where he held the ball for more than 2.5 seconds and was sacked only 16 times. Watson had 303 such snaps and was taken down 40 times.

While both QBs like to let the play develop, Mahomes appears to be better at “taking his shots” and knowing when it is safe to hold the ball.

This mattered in Thursday’s game. Watson got the ball out very quickly on average—2.45 seconds from snap to throw would be a top-five fastest average time—but on the four sacks, he held the ball for an average of 5.53 seconds. This is an eternity. While Watson is largely responsible for bringing this on himself, the defense did a great job of taking advantage of this trait. (For context on the numbers, in 2019, Watson and Kyler Murray led the league in average time holding the ball before a sack at 4.10 seconds)

When examining pressure, it may seem logical to start with the defensive line. But I have another very important player in mind: Chiefs rookie cornerback L’Jarius Sneed. The Texans came out with an obvious game plan—target the rookie early and often. Sometimes the best thing a defensive back can do is not be the weak link in the chain. The first few targets showed very quickly that Sneed was not going to be that weak link. This was huge. Watson did not have the easy planned read to abuse. Instead, he had to look elsewhere and focus more on reading the entire defense.

This is when the defensive line needed to step up. On plays where Watson was confused or holding the ball longer than he should, they had to hit home. Chris Jones and Frank Clark were up to the task. Both looked exceptional logging a combined 11 pressures and three of the Chiefs four sacks. This was not just a secondary win. Clark and Jones got quick pressure as well which also threw Watson off his rhythm. If these two have this type of production throughout the year, the defense will be very good.

The final piece of a stellar defensive performance was our beloved x-factor, safety Tyrann Mathieu. Steve Spagnuolo sent Mathieu on a blitz and the Landlord did the rest. Met by the Texans tight end, Mathieu beat his block and had a shot at Watson. Instead of merely charging ahead, the cerebral veteran jumped into the passing lane, causing Watson to hesitate and pump fake.

espite knowing that Mathieu was closing in, Watson attempted to rear back and throw (hello pocket presence) and was hit immediately, which sent the ball fluttering right into the hands of our Sneed. As you can see on this play, Watson held onto the ball for a long time before throwing this pass, but it still required a fabulous effort from Mathieu to force the turnover.

This play, which was the largest swing in EPA in the entire game (expected points added of -6.5, largely because it set the Chiefs up for another easy touchdown), was a microcosm of the entire defensive performance. Watson did not have an easy read, so he held the ball as he usually does, and one of the Chiefs many star players made the play.