Jets offensive line’s best game will be hard to repeat vs. Texans
The Jets offensive line is coming off its first game all season without allowing a sack, but duplicating that feat this week might be a task the size of Texas.
Bookend Houston edge rushers J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney have combined for 19.5 sacks this season, and the Jets must do whatever they can to keep rookie Sam Darnold upright as much as possible Saturday against the Texans.
“It’s a challenge every week. Everybody has good pass rushers. But they have some elite pass rushers,” right tackle Brandon Shell said after practice Thursday. “We just have to go out there and play. At the end of the day, they’re human just like we’re human, and we just have to go out there and block ’em up like we do every week.
“[Watt] is one of the top pass rushers in the league. … But I just have to go out there and play my game. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many sacks he has. I know he’s a good player, and I know what I gotta do. Stats and all that don’t matter, we just have to go out there and work.”
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Watt, who primarily will be lined up over Shell as the Texans’ left defensive end, has recorded 12.5 sacks through 13 games this season — one behind Denver’s Von Miller for the AFC lead — and Watt has five forced fumbles. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year had been limited to just eight appearances over the previous two seasons because of back and knee problems, but Jets coach Todd Bowles said he believes Watt “looks exactly the same” as he did before the injuries.
“With his work ethic, I’m not [surprised],” Bowles said. “He’s tough. He’s a great player. I don’t have enough adjectives to say what everyone hasn’t already said.
“He’s an outstanding football player. He approaches it the right way. He plays it the right way. We’ve got our hands full.”
That is especially true because Clowney, the first-overall pick in the 2014 draft, has contributed seven sacks from the right outside linebacker spot in Houston’s 3-4 defensive scheme this season, after totaling a career-best 9.5 in 2017.
“Outstanding player. He can play end, he can play linebacker. He can kind of do what he wants to do. Huge in size, great in speed and has a hunger for the game. I can appreciate that,” Bowles said. “He is designed. It’s not a controlled chaos. He’s going to move around some. He can do those type of things so you never know where he’s going to be.”
Left tackle Kelvin Beachum will mostly draw the assignment against Clowney, but Shell stressed it will have to be a collective effort to keep Darnold on his feet against the 9-4 Texans.
“I like being the underdog sometimes, because you just don’t know what to expect from underdogs,” Shell said. “Everybody is on the same page and everybody knows what we have to do and everybody knows what’s expected out of everybody, so we just have to go out there and play.”
Darnold wasn’t dropped on 25 pass attempts Sunday, and the Jets (4-9) halted a six-game losing streak with a 27-23 win over the Bills.
In the past three games, including losses to New England and Tennessee, Darnold and Josh McCown have been sacked just four times. But Saturday’s game figures to provide a stern test.
“It’s important just to build confidence, and that confidence is driving us into this weekend,” Shell said. “Hopefully, it just builds and builds, so we can close out this season on a good note.”
