Skeleton Keys To Victory: Week Two – Buccaneers vs Texans

It was an exciting week one victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, there is no time to dwell on that as they go on the road for another difficult game in week two. This time the travel to take on the Houston Texans.

The Texans are coming off a disappointing loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week, so they will be looking to bounce back and avoid the 0-2 start. Keep in mind that this is a team that most expected to win their division and make the playoffs this year. The Bucs will certainly be getting Houston’s best shot this week. 

Despite their week one win, it was a pretty sloppy game for the Buccaneers last week. They will have to play even better and win the key matchups in this game. Here is my week two Skeleton Keys to Victory.

Protect The Edge

The strength of this Houston team is their edge rushers. With Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr on the outside, the Texans probably have the best duo of pass rushers in the NFL. It will be a challenge for any team to deal with these two this year.

It’s even more of a challenge when your starting left tackle is out. Especially when that guy is super star pass blocker Tristian Wirfs. It’s never a good time to be missing a guy like that, but this is probably the worst matchup they could have for him to be out.

This will put extra pressure on right tackle Luke Goedeke. He just got a big extension and is the veteran presence on the line with Wirfs out. He has to be the great player we know he is and limit pressure on the outside.

It will also ask a lot out of Graham Barton. Assuming the Bucs go with the same offensive line that we saw in week one, Barton moved from center to left tackle (where he played in college). He handled this shift well last week, but this will be a much better opponent for him to face.

Throw Your Weight Around

As good as the Texans are on the defensive line, they are not good on the offensive line. After trading starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil in the offseason it took this offensive line from bad to worse. And while this group was reshuffled in the offseason, we will see if it is any better this year.

This matchup favors the Bucs defensive line across the board. We saw Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby get to the quarterback last week with some success. They should be able to this week as well as they go against Cam Robinson, who is not good, and rookie Aireontae Ersery.

This should also be a strong game for the defensive tackles. Vita Vea wreaked havoc against the Falcons although he did not get a sack. Calijah Kancey had a quiet day in Atlanta and I don’t expect that to be the case against this Texans interior. 

Body Up On The Outside

The Texans have a pair of big body receivers on the outside. Nico Collins is considered by some to be a top ten wide receiver in the NFL and he stands at 6’4 and 220 lbs. Rookie Jayden Higgins is also 6’4 and listed at 215 lbs. That kind of size is difficult to match up against.

However, the Buccaneers have the big body corners who can do that. Both Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum are over 6’1 and can run like the wind. This is one of the biggest and fastest corner duos in the NFL.

This Texans team, led by third year quarterback CJ Stroud, is built to throw the ball. However, if the corners can make life difficult for these wide receivers then Houston isn’t good enough up front to give Stroud a lot of extra time or impose their will in the running game. In short, if you contain these wide receivers then you contain this offense.