Patriots vs. Texans, 2013 NFL Playoffs: J.J. Watt and Houston pass rush still on Tom Brady's mind

One of the first things that pop into most minds when discussing the Houston Texans is the long arms extending from J.J. Watt's jersey.

Almost always busy, wrapped around a quarterback or swatting a ball from the air, those arms serve as devices of havoc, and somehow are made more menacing by the black brace, a device that typically signifies weakness or some kind of defect, that slides over the left one.

But with Watt, weakness doesn't seem to exist. A strong front-runner to win the defensive player of the year award, the defensive end recorded 16.5 sacks and 20 passes defensed. He hung zeros in both categories against the New England Patriots during a Dec. 10 meeting, but still managed to hit quarterback Tom Brady five times.

The performance by New England's offensive line was celebrated as a huge success, and considering Watt's typical level of destruction the reaction was justified. A repeat performance in Sunday's divisional playoff game will be necessary if the Patriots hope to cruise to another easy victory.

"He's an incredible player," Brady said. "You have to know where he's at on every single play because he's so disruptive with tackles for loss and his penetration of the backfield. He gets to the quarterback, led the league in sacks. He's as good as anyone playing the game."

New England once again brought out the tennis rackets and broomsticks to simulate Watt's arms in practice to help prepare Brady to throw over them, but the bigger key here, perhaps, is finding a way to keep him caged up. The approach last time was a simple: don't run his direction and use two blockers to contain him on deep passes.

Many of the times when Watt wasn't double teamed, Brady got rid of the ball quickly and afterward, ProFootballFocus.com reported that the New England quarterback only held the ball an average of 2.27 seconds, one of the fastest times the site clocked throughout the season.

"Obviously I didn't play well enough," Watt said. "I got quite a few hits on Brady, but obviously the ball was gone every time. Didn't bat any balls, didn't have any tackles for a loss, so I need to do more.

"I think that's understood, I think that's known, but that's why you get another shot and this is the playoffs. I'm going to bring everything I have."

Watt is going to be an issue no matter what, but the Texans and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips enter the week with an even bigger decision about what to do with the rest of the pieces of defense.

Houston sent five or more pass rushers on 56 percent of the plays in the last meeting and was eaten alive by Brady. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns against the blitz.

This wasn't something unique to Houston or the result of some defensive failure. Brady has historically excelled when teams take players out of coverage and send them after him, and that's been no different this year. He completed 105 of 163 passes when blitzed this season for 1,328 yards with 18 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Houston may stick to its guns and hope for the best, but they may be better served following the blueprint the Jets created in 2010 when they largely opted not to blitz in a divisional playoff game and instead clogged the middle of the field with defensive players.

The approach took away many of Brady's options of the middle and disrupted his timing with his receivers. The Jets walked away with a 28-21 victory after losing the New England, 45-3, a little more than a month earlier.

Houston isn't tipping its hand on how it plans to approach things this time, but Watt did admit that the Texans were surprised by how quickly Brady actually gets rid of the ball.

"Yes, he gets the ball out quick," Watt said. "He knows the scheme very well, he knows where his receivers are and he knows who's going to be open."

There's only so much Watt can do with those arms. In the end, he's going to have to get some help from the other 10 guys on the field to atone for what happened last month.

Source: http://blog.masslive.com/patriots/2013/01/jj_watt_texans_brady_pass_rush.html

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