Texans defensive coordinator Lovie Smith wants defense to stop the run

Houston Texans defensive coordinator Lovie Smith is all about the takeaways. It is the number one message he preaches to the team throughout every practice, every meeting at Houston Methodist Training Center and the meeting rooms at NRG Stadium.

Although the Texans have procured six takeaways through two preseason games, the most in the NFL, there are other aspects to playing sound defense that Smith wants to see out of the unit.

“It always starts up front, stopping the run,” Smith said. “And we are about a gap-sound defense, playing hard, getting 11 guys to the ball. That’s the first thing we talk about. Once you have good gap control, you’re flying around to the football and you have 11 guys at the point of attack, takeaways come then.”

Takeaways and stopping the run do seem to go hand-in-hand. Not only were the Texans the worst in the NFL at takeaways with just nine through 16 games last season, but they were the worst run defense in the NFL, giving up 5.2 yards per carry.

Even though it is just preseason, the Texans are giving up 72.0 rushing yards per game, the fourth-fewest in the league. However, Smith is constantly looking for improvement and not resting on any type of laurels at this point. The 95 yards on 30 carries against the Dallas Cowboys in the 20-14 win on Aug. 21 should have been fewer.

Said Smith: “We had a couple breakouts, believe me. We gave up a few plays last week. Not satisfied with how we played third downs. We had some opportunities we let slip away, but hopeful we can take another step this week.”

The Texans allowed the Cowboys to convert on eight of their 16 third down attempts. Houston was able to come up with four takeaways in the game: three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, and a fumble recovery.