3 Houston Texans that need to ball out to beat Carolina Panthers

Brandin Cooks cannot be neutralized for Houston Texans success

The league’s fifth-best receiver in terms of receiving yards, Brandin Cooks has 219 yards through two games this year. Putting him amongst Tyreek Hill, Cooper Kupp, and more. Last week Cooks had 78 yards and one touchdown on the road against the Browns.

Cooks should be Davis Mills’ safety blanket and a ferocious attempt should be made to get the ball into arguably the offense’s most dynamic weapon. With Tyrod Taylor and Nico Collins being out for the next few weeks, the way Offensive Coordinator Tim Kelly designs ways to get Cooks the ball is going to have to change.

Expect Cooks to see double coverage in the form of “bracket coverage” as the Panthers try to take away the Texans best aerial weapon. Getting Cooks into mesh concepts and using his speed is what’s going to take advantage of Panthers Defensive Coordinator Joe Brady’s defense.

There may not be a lot of deep passes on the Panthers, and the reason for that is how impactful Jeremy Chinn has been for Carolina. All of the touchdowns that Carolina has allowed this season have been 22 yards or less. Defenses who live by “dink and dunk” or “don’t give up the big play” eventually do what they were set out to originally stop.

If the Texans can go hurry up, then there may even be some mismatches and create opportunities for the big plays.