Stopping Leonard Fournette
Three simple words will allow the Houston Texans to likely walk with a win on Sunday afternoon against the Jacksonville Jaguars, stop the run. The Texans allowed the Saints to rush for 148 yards, and Alvin Kamara accounted for 97 of them.
Texans defense will face another talented back in Leonard Fournette in week two and they will have to work as a collective unit to keep him in check. One of the biggest concerns in trading away edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney was that the Texans were going to lose a plus defender in the run game, and the defense’s performance against the Saints did nothing to dispell those concerns.
Houston has a lot of solid run defenders in J.J. Watt, D.J. Reader, Brandon Dunn, Benardrick McKinney, and Zach Cunningham to be up to the task. If the Texans can make the Jaguars’ offense one dimensional, it will go a long way in securing the win on Sunday.
The Jaguars will be without their starting quarterback in Nick Foles after placing him on the injured reserve with a broken clavicle that he suffered against the Kansas City Chiefs in the season opener. They will be relying on rookie Gardner Minshew to be up to the task on the road against a talented defense that is still capable of being a nightmare against opposing offenses.