Texans ran man coverage against Packers WR Davante Adams when CB Bradley Roby was out
The Houston Texans were dealt an unlucky hand early in the first quarter of their 35-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Cornerback Bradley Roby left the game with a knee injury. Filling in for the former Denver Broncos 2014 first-round pick was Phillip Gaines, who is primarily a special teamer.
According to interim coach Romeo Crennel, the Texans didn’t alter their game plan much when Roby went out. In fact, the Texans continued to run man coverage even with Gaines matched up one-on-one with the three-time Pro Bowler.
“We had some man calls after Roby went out, and they didn’t always work the way we anticipated that they were going to work,” Crennel said.
To defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver’s credit, the Texans did adjust and start to run more zone coverage against the Packers.
“Some of them were zone calls,” Crenne said. “You know, we played some zone, and they were still able to get deep against some of the zone calls as well. But not having your matchup corner and not being able to match up on their best guy, I think it did hurt us.”
Adams caught 13 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns as the Packers got back on track with a 5-1 record, erasing their 38-10 letdown at Tampa Bay from a week ago.
“Well, looks like he played pretty good,” said Crennel. “I think he had a lot of targets and made a lot of yards. So, I’ve got to say he played pretty good.”
The Texans have the bye week coming in Week 8, which will allow them assess where they are at with Roby and the rest of their cornerback group. Gareon Conley, who was supposed to be their lockdown cornerback, is still working through an ankle injury in the offseason that he had to have surgery to repair.
