The Houston Texans completed the most prominent upset of Week 11 in the NFL amid a 22-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans, Sunday afternoon, at Nissan Stadium.
The Texans ended an eight-game losing streak behind a defense that created five takeaways in the win, and leading the charge for Houston was cornerback Desmond King.
In the words of linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, King “balled” — as the former Titan finished the game with a career-high two interceptions at critical moments of the fourth quarter. King said following the game that he was doing his job, as contributing to takeaways is expected in a Lovie Smith’s defense.
“I was just reading Tennessee,” King said during his post-game interview. “I saw the quarterback the whole time just staring him down [Dez Fitzpatrick], and I think that’s what Coach Lovie preaches. That’s where the ball is going to go, wherever the quarterback is looking. So, I just felt that hand come off the ball and I was like, ‘That’s my chance to go.’”
In addition to reading Tannehill, King and the Texans knew to not fall for any play-action attempts — given that Ryan Tannehill will likely drop back in the pocket for a pass.
King mentioned Houston’s defense picked up on the motion during film review, but it’s a defensive tactic he discovered during the nine games he played with Tannehill during the 2020 season following a trade from the Los Angeles Chargers.
King’s first interception of the game took place at the 11:08 mark of the fourth quarter. He recorded a pick from Tannehill to prevent a touchdown reception, as wideout Dez Fitzpatrick was the intended target.
Later on that same quarter, King came between another Tannehill to Fitzpatrick connection on a pass attempt that would have resulted in a late game-changer for the Titans.
“The defense played really well today,” he said. “We played together.
I think we played really well together all four quarters and we didn’t give up. We bent, but we didn’t give up. We fought back and just kept doing our job.”
“Just showing the chip that we play with, the grit that we play with when we take the field. It’s literally all or nothing. We play every play as it’s a critical play. Every down is critical for us and that’s how we approach it each week.”
For King, the win over the Titans provided a sample size of how good the Texans’ defense could have been throughout the season. He credited the early-season struggles to the team being fairly new with different players and defensive schemes to accommodate.
For a defensive team that has recorded 10 takeaways over the previous two games, King believes the Texans’ defense is starting to mesh as they enter the second half of the season.
Leave a Reply