HOUSTON – Concentrating on the big picture, especially a struggling offense and delegating authority, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans had defensive coordinator Matt Burke call the plays Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.
The results were ideal as the Texans earned their first shutout victory in the Ryans era in a 26-0 win at NRG Stadium. It marked the third shutout in Texans franchise history and first since Nov. 28, 2010 against the Titans.
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Burke has called plays previously in the preseason for the Texans. This was his first time in the regular season as he and Ryans collaborated on the defensive game plan.
“Burke called plays on Sunday, Burke has called plays before as well,” Ryans said. “We all collectively put the gameplan together, it worked well. We did a good job of calling it on Sunday.”
The Texans bottled up rookie quarterback Cam Ward. He completed just 10 of 26 passes for 108 yards and was intercepted once by All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. He was sacked twice by Pro Bowl defensive end Danielle Hunter. They mustered just 175 yards of total offense.
“I thought we went out and we played tremendous defense,” Pro Bowl defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said. “We just executed the fundamentals. That’s the type of defense that we knew we had. I feel like that’s the most energy that we had on defense so far this year. Everybody just being free, flying around, having fun and executing the game plan.”
The Texans rank first in scoring defense and fifth in total defense.
A former NFL Assistant Coach of the Year, Ryans, a two-time Pro Bowl linebacker, was the architect of the league’s top-ranked defense with the San Francisco 49ers as their defensive coordinator. The Texans have had one of the top defenses in the league annually during Ryans’ first three seasons.
Ryans is still heavily involved in the defense in every facet of how it’s run.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s easier,” Ryans said. “We were still talking through what plays we were running, calling, so we worked well in tandem doing that. Burke did a really nice job, I thought. Overall, everybody on our sideline, our entire operation just worked really well.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com