The Texans’ 27-14 pounding of the Saints in the 3rd preseason game exposed a number of holes in the Saints defense that continue to plague them throughout the early stages of the season.<\/p>\n
During that initial meeting, Matt Schaub aired it out to All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson with ease, while 2010 rushing leader Arian Foster gutted a poor-tackling Saints secondary.<\/p>\n
The Texans come into Sunday’s matchup at the Superdome averaging 365 yards of total offense and with a reputation as an explosive team with a number of playmakers, who could prove difficult for the Saints defense to contain.<\/p>\n
Passing Game<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Now in his 8th year in the NFL, quarterback Matt Schaub is coming off back-to-back seasons of 4000-plus passing yards.\u00a0 Twenty of his 53 passes this year have been directed toward wide receiver Andre Johnson, who finished last year with 86 catches for 1216 yards.<\/p>\n This year, Johnson has already snagged 14 balls for 188 yards and 2 scores. Against the Saints, look for Schaub to throw to Johnson early and often, testing an inconsistent Saints secondary that was burned by Green Bay two weeks ago.<\/p>\n Accompanying Johnson in the passing game is New Orleans native Jacoby Jones, an additional deep threat, and tight end Owen Daniels, who is tied with Jones for the second-most targets (7).<\/p>\n After a nightmarish performance against the Packers, the Saints defense redeemed itself with a six-sack performance against the Bears. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams blitzed frequently, and strong safety Roman Harper and defensive end Junior Galette led the way with two sacks each.<\/p>\n This week, the Saints will welcome the return of defensive end Will Smith from a two-game suspension, adding depth to what has proven itself to be a versatile group of defensive ends. Look for Williams to ratchet up the pressure once again in the hopes of getting to Schaub early and forcing turnovers.<\/p>\n Running Game<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>It’s not a surprise that the Texans rank 5th in the NFL in rushing after week 2, but it is a surprise that they’re doing it without the assistance of Arian Foster, who has been hampered by a hamstring injury.\u00a0 In his absence, second-year running back Ben Tate has stepped up big, carrying 47 times for 219 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n It’s unclear how much action Foster will see against the Saints, but whether it’s he or Tate carrying the ball, the Texans will be a force on the ground.\u00a0 The Saints, ranked 7th against the run, have a number of key starters banged up at the moment who could affect their strength against the ground game.<\/p>\n Strong safety Roman Harper, linebackers Jonathan Casillas and Jonathan Vilma and cornerback Tracy Porter have all missed practice this week; their presence will be crucial in stopping the Texans running game.<\/p>\n Matchup to Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n If there’s one absolute certainty about this matchup, it’s that Schaub will be throwing deep to Andre Johnson. Saints free safety Malcolm Jenkins has become a key cog in the Saints defense and his ability to cover ground and provide help to the Saints cornerbacks will be crucial in keeping Johnson in check.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Texans’ 27-14 pounding of the Saints in the 3rd preseason game exposed a number of holes in the Saints defense that continue to plague them throughout the early stages of the season. During that initial meeting, Matt Schaub aired it out to All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson with ease, while 2010 rushing leader Arian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}