Tim Kelly says the Ravens present ‘unique challenges’ for Texans’ pass protection
The Houston Texans allowed quarterback Deshaun Watson to take four sacks in the Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-20.
The pass rush won’t get any easier as the Texans face the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2 in the NRG Stadium opener. The AFC North club dialed up the second-most blitzes of Week 1 with 23. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers had more.
Baltimore defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale’s philosophy is to get to the quarterback by any means necessary. His pressure did get to Watson in the Week 11 game last year with the Ravens sacking the two-time Pro Bowler six times in the 41-7 loss.
Second-year offensive coordinator Tim Kelly is well aware of how formidable the Ravens can be to the Texans’ pass protection.
“The Ravens are big,” Kelly said. “They’re physical. You look at [defensive end] Calais Campbell. You look at [defensive tackle] (Derek) Wolfe. You look at [outside linebacker] (Matthew) Judon. You look at [outside linebacker] (Jaylon) Ferguson, [defensive end] (Jihad) Ward. There’s a number of — [nose tackle] Brandon Williams on the inside. There’s a number of players — the rookie from LSU [Patrick Queen] is a really good blitzer. There’s a lot of different players that offer different skill sets and that will present their own unique challenges.”
With the threat the Ravens pose, the Texans had to quickly get over their disappointment in dropping the opener to the Chiefs.
“Our guys have been, like I said, as soon as we got back Friday morning, they were able to kind of put that Kansas City game to bed and be able to learn from it, clearly, but then really start to focus on their next opponent, which is the Ravens,” said Kelly. “We’re excited, like I said, to be able to go out there and see how much better we can go out and play.”
If the Texans can improve their pass protection against the Ravens’ blitz, then it should help their third-down conversions, which were 2-of-10 last year against Baltimore. The longer Houston can sustain drives, the more it keeps Lamar Jackson off the field.
