How Texans’ ‘last-second’ defensive strategy finished off Colts, Anthony Richardson: ‘It was a miracle’

HOUSTON – Adapting on the fly, in need of one more defensive stop with one second left on the clock, one more relentless pursuit and takedown of beleaguered Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, the Texans called a timeout to plot out a strategy.

What they came up was a pass rushing gambit that confused the Colts’ offensive line as an unorthodox overload worked perfectly.

Stacked behind Pro Bowl defensive end Will Anderson Jr. and veteran defensive lineman Denico Autry, Danielle Hunter broke free as the Texans successfully closed out a 23-20 victory at NRG Stadium.

Hunter sacked Richardson at the Colts’ 39-yard line and the forced fumble off an ill-fated lateral was recovered by Autry as the game ended.

“Man, it was a miracle,” said Anderson, who leads the Texans with 7 1/2 sacks and has 10 tackles for losses and 37 pressures. “We were like, ‘We’re going to overload this side and play off of each other. I looped around, missed him and Danielle came and got it. It was just us having fun and being relentless and putting the team on our back and saying, ‘We got to finish, we got to be the ones to close out the game.’”

The Texans sacked Richardson five times and hit him nine times overall. He completed just 10 of 32 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown and was intercepted once by nickel Jalen Pitre.

“We should have had more today,” Anderson said. “We got to get him down. You never want to take winning for granted. We got to go back to the drawing board and fine-tune things.”

At one point, Richardson took himself out of the game saying he was tired from running so much.

It was that kind of rough day for the big, athletic former first-round draft pick from Florida.

Between Anderson and Hunter, it was a lot of heat being applied.

“What I see from both of those guys is just wreaking havoc because they have constant pressure on whoever we play,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It doesn’t matter, they’re able to generate pressure. It doesn’t always result in sacks, but it results in incomplete passes. It results in inaccurate passes that our DBs are able to force PBUs and make interceptions on the ball because of how those guys are rushing, how they’re speeding the quarterback up. To have a great defense, you have to have a really good front and our guys have gotten better each week and I’m very pleased with where they are and them being the reason why we’re playing really good defense.”

The final play was emblematic of the Texans’ aggressive plan to contain Richardson, who rushed for 45 yards on six carries.

“We finally came up with a game plan at the last second and it worked,” said Hunter, who has 5 1/2 sacks, 36 pressures, 12 quarterback hits and two forced fumbles. “We watch film. We kind of knew where he wanted to throw the ball. It ended up working out for us. It’s all about being disciplined. You never know what he’s going to do. It all came together.”

Richardson was pressured 24 times, completing 5 of 17 throws for 124 yards and a touchdown on his dropbacks. The Texans’ 60 percent pressure rate is tied for the highest pressure rate by a defense this season.

In the first half, Richardson completed just 2 of 15 passes.

“Our game plan is always about us and that’s the main thing,” Ryans said. “If we play our defense the proper way, if we’re where we’re supposed to be, we make it difficult on the opposing quarterback no matter who it is. Really proud of our guys for the way they covered, but more so it goes to the D-line, a credit for them and how they rush together.

“I know Richardson wasn’t sacked a lot before coming into this game. We were able to get him down five times. Multiple times we had pressure on him. Credit goes to our D-line the way they got after it up front. Everybody was in on the action of applying pressure on the quarterback.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

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